EBME Forums Forums Free discussion Free discussion Equipment without Service Manuals

Seperated from VIASYS VELA SERVICE MANUAL topic

--admin



How many people are buying equipment without making the manuals part of the deal, wake up please.

Eren ask Deigo for a copy of the service manual, I might be able to get the user manual later this week. Remember we don't have this machine in our hospital.

This sort of nonsense has been going on (to my certain knowledge) for at least the last 35 years!

As long as equipment continues to be purchased by idiots, rather than by people who understand what they are doing, I can't see the situation changing anytime soon.

I have always believed that "best practice" requires that the technical manual should always be considered to be part of the (complete) equipment. It should always accompany it when first purchased, and in any subsequent transaction (including, I might add, at disposal ... released for sale, to the auction house, or wherever). In fact I would go so far as proposing that it should be made illegal to sell any item of technical medical equipment without operators' instructions and "all available technical documentation". And that goes for donated equipment too.

OK, let's be honest about the realities here. Manuals are sometimes "lost" or stolen (usually the latter). So that's a problem that has to be addressed. Hospitals practicing prudent policies (?) make copies of manuals (or, obtain more than one set in the first instance) and lock the master sets away! All of us here know that manuals are like gold-dust, yet most places I have been and seen are very careless about looking after them.

Perhaps the only "answer" is to have a central location somewhere in cyberspace where all technical information is stored in .pdf format (or whatever). That is, regardless of manufacturers' objections, "copyright", and all that other stuff aimed (not at helping techs out in the field), but at gouging a little more for manuals that have (presumably) already been paid for somewhere along the line. Any volunteers?

Hi:

I agree. And I have an other comment, there are some times that the "service manual" that brings with the equipment is just a little part of thr real manual just to accomplish with the requirement

there must be a way to do this kind of library and that it could be legal

Regards.

Yes, your point is well taken. What I always used to do there was reject the equipment (that is, refuse to have it released from "Goods Inwards") until the vendor supplied a manual that I could live with!

As I've said a few times before, sometimes you just have to be tough (mean, medieval, whatever).

In UK government hospitals, all that is supposed to be sorted out before the purchase goes ahead. See the various posts by Jim Gavin et al about PPQ, and related items.


How about some place "off shore"?

This matter has been touched on more than a few times before. It seems that the forum gets almost daily requests from someone or other, out in some place or other, for technical manuals.

I assume that most people are:-

1) Looking for .pdf files sent by email.
2) Not interested (or able) to pay for used, hard-copy, manuals.

If there was any chance of earning an honest, modest, profit then the Trader might be willing to have a go at supplying manuals. But this would be no "get rich quick" endeavour, as it means finding, then buying the manuals in the first place, storing them, then shipping and all the rest. Scanning into .pdf files also is a lot of work!

However it seems to me that most are simply coming onto the forum begging for manuals. What's the deal here?

Somehow I doubt that there is any mileage in supplying manuals. People seem to be expecting free hand-outs? Am I right?

I think we can assume that people are looking for manuals (especially email attachments, downloads and such) free of charge, there Trader.

Those of us who have been known to assist in shipping donated equipment overseas, sending off the odd .pdf file, offering advice etc. have done so in the hope that we are (in the final analysis) helping some poor soul desperately in need of help. That is, patients "out there". In the meantime we are also offering a helping hand to our fellow biomed techs, who may be struggling on in "less than ideal" conditions, trying to do a decent job of supporting the kit (and the users).

Who knows if such equipment ends up being sold on the so-called Black Market? Who knows if people coming on here begging for manuals are actually contractors saving a few quid (by not buying them)? Who knows if they are selling-on those .pdf files? But somehow I doubt it.

Are we mugs, those of us who give? Are people laughing? Should we care about what others think, just as long as someone, somewhere does indeed (albeit perhaps only occasionally), as a result of our efforts, gain a modicum of comfort and relief?

I have been mocked before when mentioning "love" as a necessary requirement for the biomed credo. But I say it again. And true love must be unconditional.

Meanwhile, does anyone remember this one:-

" ... again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter ... " ... insert your own preferred version here.

Depends if you got rich by your own deeds

Qui s'excuse, s'accuse!

You can't take it (them) with you, Mate. You are advised to sell your possessions and give to the poor. But don't just take my word for it.

What if you don't know any poor people?

I believe I may be able to put you in touch with a few.