For those who do on-call, can you answer a simple question, please. What repairs can be done in the middle of the night? If the end user has to wait an hour for you to get there and another hour for you to do the repair,(including post repair function and safety tests), why can they not wait to morning?
Anaesthetic machines and vents take time to respond to and fix in the mean time the patient is being kept alive by alternative means so it is often easier to find a replacement than to wait on a technician to arrive and attempt a repair. I say attempt as in reality it is either a simple fault that the user could have fixed or a major breakdown which takes a long time to fix - if you have the parts on the shelf.
In my opinion spare machines and sensible staff (i.e. those who can think around a problem such as borrowing from else where) make on-call redundant.
The exception to this is where you directly support clinical activities, such as ward based blood analysers etc.
Robert
I do remember being called for a mains lead once only to find it still on the nurses station in the morning. It is easier to bleep than to think!
Last edited by RoJo; 03/06/14 9:38 AM.
