Hareesh,
I have read with interest the discussion on BME accreditation. In our hospital we have a sizeable library of service manuals and do not accept any new equipment without orginal copy of the service manual. This is a pre-condition before any new purchase. We have also developed our own PPM checklists, based on the manufacturer's recomendations. PPM's done by the vendors for equipment under warranty are not acceptable unless there is a check list. we do not accept service reports which merely state "PPM done".

If you like, I can send you "generic" PPM check lists based on ECRI / JCIA, which can form a basis to develop your in-house or external PPM's.

Our experience with the vendors in the UAE is that they are co-operative most of the times to provide you with a service manual. Please let me know if you need specific service manual and we can check in our library.

Our hospital is in the process of JCIA accreditation and have been following JCIA guidelines on Biomedical Equipment management for some time now.

I am ready to share my UAE experience concerning Biomedical Equipment Management. Please let me know if you need any assistance.

I wonder if a young person considering joining the UK biomed “profession” would still remain keen to do so after reading through this topic?

In what other industry does a technician have to worry about being treated as a criminal? We all know that there are never enough resources (in time, especially) to do every little thing “by the book”. Why should the tech, struggling always to “make it fit”, be the fall-guy? Do NHS biomeds receive any sort of support for all this (not to mention extra pay, of course)?

So guys, if the NHS is under-resourced (just imagine), then let it be known about in the upper echelons of power! Don’t make it fit! Just do what you can in the hours available, and let the rest go. Let management manage the problems!

“Electro-med” used to be a fine line of work to be in, but I’m afraid that somewhere along the road, it’s taken a wrong turn. Now (in the UK at least) the whole thing is a joke!

My advice to any fertile young mind would have to be (and I regret to say it), “look elsewhere”. Unless, that is, you want to be a nervous wreck before your thirtieth birthday! Prosecuted for doing your job – you’re better off going out and finding a paving slab to trip over, or becoming a “traveller”, or, perhaps, an asylum seeker!