"extended warrantee with PPM and a service contract"
I believe the datex extended warrantee with ppm also covers the parts / labour costs involved in any repairs or updates deemed necessary, possibly even priority replacements where needed. Wheras a service contract would only be an inspection, service, and re-calibration.
The ppm service contract itself on datex machines would be expensive as it it based on the modules contained in the unit, the extended warrantee would be even more astronomical as they have to cover the possibility or something breaking and requiring exchange for free (is anything ever free).
Back onto the preverbial can of worms though
My take on the servicing situation is that it is the medical services managers responsability at local level to decide the servicing requirements for all equipment.
* He or she must examine manufacturers manuals where available and set the freqency accordingly.
* Liase with the company directly when logging it onto the database if no details are found for their take on the matter and hopefully obtain some written documentation to proove his discussion / instructions.
* After exhausing all possibilities, without manuals or clear company instructions on servicing requirements (as is commonly found) he must either make a decision himself and let it lie on his own shoulders, OR the possibility of speaking directly to the user (who after all will be using the equipment and be a trained specialist in those devices) and asking them what kind of servicing they require.
^^ The last item i will explain with a scenario
A Piece of specialist equipment is found in operating theatres, it is used rarely and one of the surgeons had it bought from the USA.
No manuals are held or available, there is limited support from the UK SELLER as far as maintainance goes and he says no maintainance is necessary but they will send it to the USA for repair if it breaks.
A moral dilemma? what do you do with this black box that you know nothing about?
To me, you backside is covered if you get written / faxed information from the uk agent saying that no servicing is required and that it will be contracted on failiure. The department should be given a printout of their departments holdings on the next inspection and the printout should show that "No Servicing, Contract on failiure".
At any point you have yourself covered hopefully from many angles and if the crunch really came to the crunch you could testify that in a court of law. The user did not notify you of any special requirements for the servicing of that machine even though it was presented to them.
Does that sound reasonable without a formalised list from mda (that i know of) ?
