We had an "inspection" by a nice man from Clare Instruments (Tel 01903 502551) who make electrical test and protection equipment. He reviewed our workshop against the EU directive on live working and made some interesting comments.

Most of the requirements we were exempt from because everyone who works in the workshop can be deemed to be "competent" and therefore understand the risks. We did have to make some changes - like
1) re-wiring the supplies to the workbenches to include emergency cut-off buttons so that if someone was getting electrocuted, other members of staff could isolate the supply quickly and safely.
2) creating a barrier between our clerical area and our workshop area - where the live working was done.
3) display clear signs at the entrance to the workshop area forbidding entry to un-authorised personnel.
4) installing dividers on the workbenches (which are shared by two people) to create individual work-spaces and ensure that no one working on the bench next to you could reach across and touch any equipment on your bench.

The whole lot only cost a couple of £K and we now comply with EN50191.

Do any of you do any 'live working' out in the field and if so what safety precautions do you take?
eg. Do you use 30mA/30ms RCD adaptors?
Do you barrier the work area off?

cheers
Mark

Mark

EN 50191 give guidance on "Temporary test stations" and gives some useful advise.

The HSE also publish guidance on live working and its worth a look at their website.

Hi, sorry to ask but have I missed something here (I have been away for a while). About 12 months ago (approx) there was a lot of noise on this website about the HSE legalities of this topic. Can I ask what has changed? I think its marvelous that people deemed (Competent) have the professional respect and authority to practice their profession in HSE oblivion . But again, what has changed, I have tried to find the original thread but I am a busy chap you know.

Regards

EH

EH - Why do you think anything has changed ? We had to have the work done in the workshop precisely because of the HSE rules and other legislation. The only bits we didn't have to comply with was having silly signs on the benches, putting up barriers round any bench where live working was taking place, painting lines on the floor to identify hazardous areas, and having an amazingly complicated "trafic light" system to warn people of the state of the supply on each bench. All of this was un-necessary because a) we had a warning notice at each entrance to the workshop so the whole workshop was effectively a live working area and b) everyone working in the workshop was deemed competent.

Live working out of the workshop is a different matter. We try and avoid working live on dismantled equipment around the hospital and bring it back to the workshop - but sometimes you've no choice. You can't set up barriers and warning signs around everything because you would effectively close off the whole area and stop the clinical department from working. Definitely frowned upon ! So we make sure senior staff in the area know what we're doing and NEVER leave the equipment un-attended in a dismantled state - whether the power is on or not.

It's down to thinking safe and acting safe - or some similar little catch phrase I've seen somewhere !

Roy, how much did it cost to upgrade to the HSE version of acceptable workshop 2004.

EH

Between £1k and £2K - I honestly cant remember as it was about 12 months ago - and I didn't pay for it !

It wasn't about upgrading the workshop to an HSE acceptable level - it was finally getting the evidence to support our claim that the safety / protection equipment wasn't up to scratch. I don't know if the HSE would have thrown a wobbler or not, had they inspected us, but I do know we were working in an environment which could have been safer - and now is.

We're reviewing our work places to try and bring them in line with EN50191.
Our work places are one room jobs so we need to barrier off the work stations from non-competant persons ie; medical staff, reps and cleaners.
This may just require barriers just inside the main doors to our work places + getting the cleaners to come in 'out of hours'.
Wheels are in motion.

Cheers. Mark