EBME Forums Forums Management Professional Issues VRCT renewal

You're right Rob. To my mind, rather than have this emphasis on individual registration (etc.), what's more important is a department Quality System, properly implemented, documented and followed through by everyone in the department. That takes drive, leadership and vision, not mediocrity. Not once a year, but every hour of every day.

I can’t see how registration in its present form will be of any benefit to ‘Joe Patient’- our customer.

The only advantage registration could offer is to enforce a minimum qualification standard throughout the industry, but due to the ever lowering of qualification standards this also would become meaningless.

I worked at a workshop in outside industry that was one of the first in the country to gain the then BS5750 registration and it did improve quality (at an inevitable initial cost) but at least standards were set and monitored.

In my view the health service is only national in name with each Trust doing their own thing especially regarding Bio-med departments. (Or should that be EBME or the outdated Medical Electronics.) Surely it is about time that all medical engineering departments became a National department with agreed standards that would apply across the health service. One could start by agreeing on a national departmental name.

Barney

Medical Engineering gets my vote, Barney.

You're right about the divergence of biomed departments, even in seemingly similar, typical, district general hospitals. The differences in style, application of "standards", and general quality etc. can be quite marked.

And since the introduction of NHS Trusts it often appears that the good departments have either got better, or stood still, whilst the not-so-good .... (fill in your own answer).

The English NHS (Scotland and Wales, and NI, all have their own, of course) is a "big firm", with all that that implies in terms of management etc. And unfortunately the Trouble Shooter (Sir John Harvey-Jones) is no longer with us.

But I wouldn't be surprised to see the government setting "targets" for biomed departments, the same as they've done in most other areas that you could think off. Perhaps 90% of all PM's carried out on time, or some such thing. It's all good for morale, you know!

Is that not what iso 9000 is designed to do, not vrct. It sets the standard of work, work practices and procedures to be followed. It also gives you the quality tracking for equipment. Again this has nothing to do with vrct so maybe we should be just looking at iso 9000 accreditation because it doesnt matter if you then employ a monkey as long as it follows procedures and maintains the minimum standard layed down.

ISO9000 is not a quality system; it is now a quality management system.
(The old BS5750 and the early version of ISO9000 were quality systems that looked at what was actually done.)
As long as the processes are in place to show that you control and organise what do you can get accreditation.
It does not set out a minimum standard of work or service, it is up to the user/customer to inspect the quality manuals to asses the company/service provider and to compare them with other companies.
The latest version of the standard (ISO9000:2000) does not even insist you have your work procedures are documented, just that there is a management process in place.
If your service procedure is to wipe the equipment with a greasy rag once a year, as long as you can show that this is planned, completed and documented, you can be accredited.

Registration is actually a minimum standard for people who can be removed from the register if they fall below standard.
This does not mean that each job is monitored, you have to leave that up to management procedures within the organisation. But it does stop a rogue person leaving one job and starting another elsewhere.
You will also have to have a continual professional development programme to make sure you stay up to date. Is this a bad thing?

Robert

The only problem with external systems as above is that you need strong management, or deputy management, to drive it forward, and ensure that it is adhered to.

Forget the VRCT and ISO9000 rubbish Alan 2-0 to the Owls, c'mon!!!

Have you encountered any rogue technicians, then, Robert? Did they ever turn up again elsewhere (as bad pennies do)?

Perhaps you should "name and shame", Mate, and we'll hold a Kangaroo Court right here!

Better yet, maybe Huw could start a forum like this one?

Geoff,
I have met technicians who I did not think were up to the job, but I will not name them here.
Have a look at the HPC Hearings web site to see the people from other registered professions who have their fitness to practice brought undrer question. 10 this month so not a insignificant number.

I think the need for continual update is important. It means that people will have to be up to date on current thoughts and that management will have to allow people to have the appropriate time away for this training.

Robert

Ah! So what exactly has Registration for these other proessions achieved. Did it prevent patient harm? NO Did it prevent rougue individuals from being employed? NO Did it catch these individuals commiting the wrongful acts? NO and my personal favourite, Did it ensure patient safety as quoted in a recent previous post?
One more thing, are the public / patients looking at these Registers? indeed are they even aware they exist?
Yes these Hearings show us there are rougue employees out there but it (Registration) didn't prevent it.
Topper