EBME Forums Forums Management Professional Issues VRCT - Who's Re-Newed?

I was not implying anything to do with Unions, just the thought of demarkation lines.

Every profession, and in particular professions within the NHS, are all regulated and recognised. So why not us who work in the world of EBME?

It is just a way to regulate who can practise biomedical engineering within the NHS infrastructure. Nurses, physiotherapists, doctors, estates managers etc. all go through regulation... never mind constant changes to it with time.

Go down a street in the UK and carry out a survey with the general public and ask them if they know the job title of someone who repairs and carries out safety testing on medical equipment within the NHS? Will Joe Public know the answer? It would be a minimum, if any.

I say regulation is a good thing, and it is about time the technical staff of EBME departments around the UK deserve some recognition for the services they do on a daily basis.

Also, when the registration becomes compulsory and not voluntary, it is going to cost a lot more than £10 per year. It will be money well spent for the future of biomeds.

And you think being registered is going to give you public recognition, dream on. If you want public recognition join the theatre or a circus.

I don't think it's a case of public recognition Neil, the public probably don't know what half the employees in the NHS really do except for nurses and doctors.

At the moment anybody can buy a cheap PAT test course and set themselves up as a medical equipment service company. Hopefully if the registration becomes compulsory this should set standards for the industry and stop dumbing down of the job.

If someone after registration came into effect, in the UK said they were a clinical technologist and they weren't registered they'd be committing fraud
The question is how would it effect the private sector, there's already examples in the NHS of the need for registration within the NHS, but university staff not needing registration within the same building.

What if they said they were a "PAT Tester"?

Get real, guys. Joe Public doesn't give a damn about who fixes the kit. And why should he?

By the way, surely I'm not the only one who noticed that piece in the news recently about the baby dying in an incubator with a "do not use after ..." (such and such a date). I seem to remember advising against that sort of sticker many times in the past. Hostage to fortune, and all that (despite being pretty obvious, I would have thought). Now some poor [censored] will be in the [censored]!


Well, we can understand that. But you can see how the grieving parents might see things a little differently. How would "registration" have helped there, I wonder?

But why all this need for recognition? Are we so insecure that we can't be trusted to simply get on with the job?

No, you missed my point entirely there. Much rather have the regulation than recognition.

Sorry to labour the point, David, but (as mentioned so many times before) we are already regulated:-

1) As technicians, by the Engineering Council
2) By the terms of our Employment Contracts
3) By the Rule of Law (just like everyone else)

Well if they say their a PAT Tester and just PAT Tests that's alright but you know there's some companies who are just lick and stick guys or as we've seen here they give it a quick function check and tell the staff to ship it to the local hospital for repair! Honestly the clinical staff could probably do that for themselves.

Then again your entering the territory of is it OK to just PAT test medical equipment or should it be tested to medical equipment standards? (60601-1, IEC 62353)

Now here it doesn't matter if registration was in place or not, you can guarantee that the HSE probably did a full investigation into the situation and checked if the person servicing it was competent. It seems registration just tries to do that before the accident happens and the HSE get involved. (of course if this was a RIDDOR reported incident, it seems the incubator didn't kill the baby, it just didn't help cure it)

There's a quote by John Ruskin that they display in a local sandwich shop that answers this. You can always guarantee that somebody will try and cut corners and do the job a bit cheaper, what you have to watch out for is that standards aren't sacrificed.


The thing is not everybody so called 'servicing' medical equipment are technicians, some of them look highly suspiciously like salesmen!

If your employed to do something without training, you do it without training, it doesn't really do anything does it!
The Rule of Law only really takes effect in this case after you've broke it!

You obviously had so much fun with that post, Chris, that it would be a bit churlish of me to pick it to pieces.

Anyway, I'll leave it to others to draw their own conclusions.

@Chris, going back to your statement that all biomed depts. are different is exactly why the VRCT training scheme will not work. We need recognition for ih-house training.

@biomed, regulation is probably a good thing but it has to be appropriate. Have a look at the code of conduct for Incorporated Engineer and Eng Tech on the IET website. It contains statements about not causing harm to others by your actions and about maintaining your competency through CPD much in the same way as the VRCT does. In fact I reckon that they may have pinched some of the wording from the IET's code of conduct.
I'll have a look for the webpage and post a link later.