I wonder if adequate instruction and operator training concerning the proper use of medical devices is being given to patients who use "professional" medical equipment at home, particularly that supplied by hospitals and PCTs, probably without the level of supervision that would be provided in a healthcare setting.
As for the cheap medical devices that can be purchased over the counter, perhaps the MHRA should legislate against manaufacturers selling or individuals using equipment without the appropriate knowledge, training or supervision, in the same way that they do for prescribed medicines; certainly if there's a risk associated with the use of certain medical devices.
Why should anybody assume that individuals or "the person in the street" read instructions or can interpret the results or that they'll apply "common sense" when they're poorly or under instructions that are misleading or inadequate?
A few years ago I had a close and elderly neighbour (who was subsequently diagnosed as a diabetic) knock on my door one evening, who knew I worked in a hospital in some technical capacity.
She had on an ambulatory NIBP monitor whose hose had kinked and got trapped in the cuff - when it inflated it wouldn't release the air pressure in the cuff and had produced an error. When her arm started going numb, then blue, then mottled blue-grey, she got worried and tried to call the cardio-repiratory department at the hospital that provided the equipment. No answer.
What bothered me was that she not been given any instructions or contact details of what to do if the device didn't appear to be working or what the indications of things going wrong with it might be, nothing. She'd been told to keep the device on otherwise it wouldn't record her BP. Nothing on the device and no back-up out of normal working hours.
So she sat there until the discomfort and something that didn't look right forced her to cross the road ask me what she should do - obviously I removed the cuff massaged her arm (now a sort of mottled blue-grey colour) and suggested that if it didn't return to it's normal colour or the feeling didn't come back soon that she should just call an ambulance or the local on-call GP.
Fortunately she was Ok and I returned the faulty ambulatory monitor back to the cardio-respiratory department in the hospital where I worked. Needless to say I mentioned a lack of instructions to be told that removing the cuff in these circumstances is "common-sense". Well in my experience it ain't that common when somethings alien to you and your elderly, poorly and confused.
Can't see how this one can be got around whilst devices are prescribed without adequate training, instructions and supervison to those who use them, nor without an assessment of the capabilities of those using the equipment under these circumstances taking place.
