EBME Forums Forums Management Medical Equipment Management Government Check of Weighing Scales

One good thing to come of any checks such as these is how under resourced many ebme depts are.

We have had the local trading standards in to check our scales, they performed the function free of charge and checked every scale to be found on the whole site. They took a week to do and then provided us with a report on the condition of the scales. They did not perform any repair or cal but at least we know the condition and location of all our scales. It is now up to the trust to act on this report/information to comply with legislation.

Too Funny!

Ed

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/7379546.stm

Latest update

Here is the official DH document
Action underway by: 9th May 2008
Only a week to go
Robert

We have found the Trading Standards to be very helpful in offering advice about weighing scales. What I don't understand is why the DOH have published their document prior to the completion of the National Weigh Scale project.
The Action Completed date of this document is 20th June 2008 and by Action Complete they mean that all scales not of class 111 type and used for medication, treatment and monitoring have to be identified and removed from use. As I can't see it likely that hospitals will have any scales that are not for medication, treatment and monitoring then that basically means all scales will have to comply and that could be the vast majority that are in use now.
The cost of replacement of scales for a large trust trust could mean that they have to go out to tender and therefore there is no chance of achieving the Action Completed date.

An interesting string. May be the trust could look at not how many they have, but modify the question and ask what do we actually need to be effective. What do you think Ken?

Yes the project has been helpful in that we have been able to identify areas where we can reduce the number of scales and save on calibration checks.