Although it may be possible to provide lists of non-medical and medical electrical items, how are you going to deter the guys from Mutt & Jeff PAT Services, who (as has already been mentioned) are happy to just come in and "test" everything in sight that has a mains plug on it (and get paid for each piece of kit they apply a sticker to)! Different coloured mains plugs? Yet another "sticker" (colour-coded "dot" ... whatever)? Or someone to (waste time having to) accompany them the whole time - who may as well be doing the EST's themselves?
To my mind, the "answer" (in hospitals, at least) is to bring back the whole thing (electrical safety testing of equipment with a mains plug) squarely under the control of the biomed department. Yes, kettles and all! If the biomeds lack sufficient manpower, then they can always seek to bring in someone from outside - but the exercise should always remain under the
control of the biomeds!
But surely you haven't waited until now (that is, with the introduction of 62353) to be "told" to carry out visual inspections, functional and performance testing, and electrical safety tests at the same time, Malcolm? We used to call it PM ... or, if you prefer (as I do), I/PM.
Even back in the early days of "Electro-med" in HM Forces we used to do all that, although (in those days) we used to call them (monthly, quarterly, annual
etc.) "inspections"! Never mind 62353, 601, or even 5724; what about HTM-8? Ha, ha.
But yes ... those were also the Happy Days when we had to "make do" with an Avo 8 and a (hand-wound) Megger. Plus (if you were lucky, a
Camsafe - which no-one else on here has yet admitted to ever having heard about)!
