EBME Forums Forums Free discussion Free discussion Staffing Levels for EBME deptments.

PM is an essential part of the job no disagreement there, however, once a years is all that is required for the majority of equipment, less for some. Ventilators, Defibs twice a year any more then we are simply creating unnecessary work!

As I mentioned earlier, there are NHS hospitals known to me where they have zero structured PM.

So, in cases like that, and others (and there are many) who may lack sufficient resources, I would be happy if they would set up a programme aimed at carrying annual PM on all the kit. It would be a start, a step in the right direction. If they could look at the critical kit every six months as well, even better.

But the main point is to a) Have a PM programme in place, then b) Carry it through to completion (year in, year out).

Only once biomeds have reached such a happy state of affairs as that need we talk about moving on to either increasing or decreasing the number of visits, either of which could (and should) result from properly implemented Risk-based PM.

Interesting topic. I like it "traditional". "Radical" can still be considered when it adds value to your system.

Have you guys ever experienced when a kit becomes an issue to be debated in court? And where can you fall back - your quality system (IPM and the stuff). Now, regarding the frequency of IPM, who decides the right frequency? Are you following your own system or the recommendation by the manufacturer?

With respect to all in this thread.

Dave in Oz - you are comparing a English NHS trust (what ever its called) with the antipodean competative Biomedical model.
And, in here in the colonies we work to a different standard. Interestling enough at a recent Biomedical managers meeting here in NZ, it was discussed by the hosting hospitals legal representative that in theory there was no reason not to push the period out to greater than twelve months - on low risk items (i.e. homecare CPAP, nebulisers etc)

Of course we are talking about patient safety and getting kit in front of Biomeds, but twice or four times a year is plain over kill (on most items of equipment) - Manufacturers of todays equipment are (for the main part) recommending 12month servicing - so would the likes of Geoff then go ahead and do 6monthly?

We do no 3monthly testing and only limited 6monthly testing - the bulk of items are on a 12monthly cycle.
And, we have had no issues. Most of NZ would be on a similar regime.

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I like this one in particular! Surely, the foremost thing for a biomed is to have the patient in mind and that is about safety and everything we could do to bring about a safe environment.

Cheers!

My antipodean cousin (or is that "bro"? eh Phil) raises an interesting question so I would like to pose it as below.

Are attitudes to resources different between the UK model and that used down-under?

So, could I ask of those of you in the UK (and elsewhere if you feel like joining in), what is concidered the normal level of testable assets per tech within the Public Health System/ NHS? Equally, what is the accepted ratio for those who are supporting the private healthcare sector (does Bupa still exist?)

In some ways, I quess this kind of brings us back to where this all started.

As times change and equipment becomes more reliable, it is difficult to justify testing feeding pumps more frequently than once a year! Common sense is required here, follow the manufacturers recommendations where possible and adjust frequencies according to experience ie if failure is common check more frequently!! Also the user has a responsibility to report any defects/droppages.

A fair amount of the bigger stuff is on contract but we would like to change that. Alot of stuff just doesn't get seen.

We don't PM very much because we don't have enogh staff, we over run with repairs, it would be a lot more expensive to call in outsiders for every repair we did.

I was on annual leave yesterday and was surprised by the response to this topic. Thank you all for your contributions. Any one else have any views on numbers of people.

In response to Geoff’s earlier question we have 5 biomeds (not including dialysis techs).