EBME Forums Forums Management Modernisation (Formerly, Controls Assurance) Electricians and EBME convergence

Hi All

To reinforce what being said here - do not under sell yourself - you like many if not all of us spent years in college (university) studying electronics to a high level. We did not study cable joining and light bulb changing in night school to become a sparky.

Our proffesion (and that is what it is) takes a long time - years of experience to become good at, As does becoming a good sparky or chef. Of course we can all do cross training and learn other trades - but and heres the but Biomed is a multi disaplined profession (ie - electronics, physiology, biology, chemistry, mechanics, IT to name a few) To learn all of the ablove takes years of learning.

So, please don't sell yourself short or let your management under sell you and mix you in with other Non clinical areas.

Thank you - that my rant for the day - new rant tomorrow.

Phil.

We are all under Support Services here i.e. Estates and Facilities. However there are several sections under this heading which includes us as we come under Estates.
So although we look after gas and electronics from regulators to sophisticated monitors, no electrician, fitter etc here, would contemplate attemping to fix anything of ours - not even in the middle of the night.
They may be good at what they do, but medical devices are entirely different. There have been several documents over the years, highlighting the responsibility of the Supervisor of Technical Servicing (HEI98 and MDA DB9801 for example.) This person is supposed to authorise people to work on equipment, possible with company contractors who report to him when on site, but impossible with tradesmen, unless he has direct control over them.

@Phil

Not only multi-disciplined, with years of training, but having the "right" mind-set (attitude, aptitude etc.) as well!

As I explained to a boss a couple of years ago ... "yes, I can drive a van ... I can also paint walls, and put up shelves (and I actually don't mind doing any of those things) ... but is that what you want to pay me to do"? That is, is the Service Engineer paid to service kit, or to spend four, five, six hours on the motorway each day?

Sorry for the digression. But it was just in amplification of what has already been said. Most biomeds I've come across (and I've met a few) are useful blokes, helpful*, and willing to "make things better" in general. In a word, proactive. But that same attitude can easily be taken advantage of by "the management" (and, as may be imagined, I speak here from sorry experience)!

* Dare I also add "humble"?

Cheers guys.

If your Trust isn't already cost cutting, it will be!

Job saving exercises ahead, me thinks.

Cheers
Mark

As everyone must be aware, the UK's government hospitals have, since the NHS was created, been lurching from one "financial crisis" to another. It is a given in the UK, just like the miserable weather, and the expectation that our national teams "always lose"!

In a way it's a good thing, as it keeps those who may otherwise be tempted to adopt a sloth-like posture to remain on their toes, as it were!

However, if we look at things objectively, the NHS has improved in most meaningful (and measurable) ways, more or less year on year since its inception.

It is right and proper that it is constantly being called to account. It is, after all, a Public Service, paid for by the tax-payer. Notice, too, that it remains the largest employer in Europe (and, worldwide, only the Chinese Army, and Indian Railways, "employ" more people). Around one in every 23 workers in the UK earn their crust in the NHS.

People (and the Daily Mail) moan and groan about it. But perhaps they would see things a little differently if they had been unlucky enough to be injured in a car accident in, say, Lagos or Khartoum ... or fallen seriously ill in (again, purely for purposes of illustration), say, Mali or Mogadishu. Compared with the needy in places like that, I don't think that those in the vicinity of junction 25 of the M5 have too much to worry about.

And, as regards "the workers" ... well, to put it bluntly, Mark, you are scare-mongering, Mate. As I have said a zillion times before, as long as the kit is there (and, in the UK at least, it always will be), there also has to be someone around who is able to fix it. Just continue to make yourself useful, and no doubt all will be well!

if you want cost cutting ours does the best. It asks that you give as much notice of retirement and then when your day comes you leave. After a while someone then says 'whys the work piling up!!' Could it be that you have not replaced the retiree and you have taken another of our workforce 3 days a week.

Art of management will always be a mystery.

Or could it be that they are working up to taking on another raft of agency techs, making them graft for a while, and then (just as they seem to be ... er, relaxing a bit) giving them the elbow?

Seriously, though Billy ... maybe the "plan" is to do more with less!

PS: we are all looking forward to seeing the vacancy advertised in due course!

Mark,
We used to be under estates and "helped out" with a few electronic related problems, control boards for lifts, backup lighting controllers etc. but these were few and far between. We wouldn't consider asking sparkies to assist us, they would probably be straight up to their super. for a pay rise.
We took on some Assistant Technical Officers to work on low tech stuff, they were employed at a lower grade than qualified electricians! A move that I vehemently argued against, after all they are required to do a techician's job at a lower grade.
If you are looking to merge with someone I'd home in on the IT dept. after all there is a greater convergeance between us and IT. There are mainy times that we hve been at the mercy of IT to "allow" us to sort out equipment problems.

Or, better still, have IT "merge" with biomed ...and let them be at the mercy of us!

Not really looking at merging with anyone.

We're being given the opportunity to rethink the protocols that we work by.

"We do it this way because we've always done it this way" is not a good premis to stand by.

Lean thinking is the way forward http://www.idea.gov.uk/idk/aio/5269340

Cheers
Mark