EBME Forums Forums Management Medical Equipment Management No more PAT testing of medical equipment!

If interested in the latest advice on PAT testing you can download a free guide from the HSE here.

The recommendations made in this document are also reflected in the IET Code of Practice for In Service Inspection and Testing of Electrical Equipment (4th edition).

Our company carries out 2 types of testing.. PAT and Medical electrical safety testing ( Any medical equipment that is plugged into the mains and makes physical contact with a patient ) the kit cost us quite a lot. It's scary to hear that there are other companies using standard PAT testing equipment on medical devices

I know they usually get paid per item and would a non-specialist know a piece of medical kit anyway, if it was in a cupboard.
I dfoubt if they were deliberately doing it, just testing everything in sight.
Robert

It's even more scary to hear that you've (apparently) only just learned that is the case. It's being going on for years!

@Robert: yes, that's how it's usually done (as reported earlier). Surely everyone is aware of this?

( Apparently ) ??? I haven't ' just ' learned that this was the case. I have known for 2 years ( The length of time in my current role ). I was just stating that it is scary that this is still going on with other testing companies. That is all..

To my mind, what is far more "scary" is that the "managers" of these places don't seem to have much of a clue about what electrical safety is really all about (apart from simply "ticking boxes", that is).

For instance, does anyone have any figures regarding failures during electrical safety testing at clinics (NHS, Private, dentists, vets etc.), whether by PAT or "medical" testing regimes (that is, how often does the kit actually fail) ... for:-

1) Medical equipment
2) Domestic equipment (kettles etc.)
3) Kitchen equipment (refrigerators, microwave ovens)
4) Office equipment (PC's, photocopiers et al)
5) "Mains lead extensions"
6) "Toys" (mobile phone chargers and the like)
7) Wiring and electrical outlets*
8) Lighting (especially the risk of fire)**

What I am getting at here is ... let's "get real" about where the actual risks lay!

OK ... just to speed things up, here are my suggestions:-

1) Medical equipment EST failures -> never
2) Domestic equipment EST failures -> sometimes
3) Kitchen equipment EST failures -> rarely
4) Office equipment EST failures -> never
5) "Mains lead extensions" -> should all be binned!
6) "Toys" EST failures -> often!
7) Wiring and electrical outlets -> sometimes death-traps
8) Lighting -> often hazardous in certain situations!

* Including incorrectly wired and/or poor (or no) earth!
** Usually due to incorrect lamp used in a particular fitting ... or simply being "always left on"!

Just out of interest (and more or less within the bounds of this topic):- what do your Company policies say about mains plugs and mains plug fuses, I wonder?

Geoff, just had a word with a few of our engineers and this is what they said:

1) Medical equipment - Rarely
2) Domestic equipment (kettles etc.)- Rarely
3) Kitchen equipment (refrigerators, microwave ovens)- Rarely
4) Office equipment (PC's, photocopiers et al)- Rarely
5) "Mains lead extensions" - Occasionally
6) "Toys" (mobile phone chargers and the like)- Rarely
7) Wiring and electrical outlets* - we dont offer this service ( Different division looks after this )
8) Lighting (especially the risk of fire)** - same as above

One of the engineers said that they always run a medical electrical safety test after each repair as standard. We do have a few hospitals and GP surgeries that request this service on an annual basis..

Can I stir the pot?


PAT testing

Back in the dim days of pre history I set up the PAT testing regime for the Works Department at this Trust, initially the guys doing the tests found a lot of problems with Domestic equipment - mostly leads and plugs, over half of the equipment in the Catering Department failed, they threw out most of the extension leads and had relatively few faults with other PAT tested equipment. They did not cover Medical Equipment, and fixed installations aren’t PAT equipment and are subject to another set of requirements.

In subsequent years the number of faults found were a fraction of the first years.



60601 or 62353 testing

On too many occasions to mention I have failed equipment during a visual inspection (broken cases, drop damage, mains leads and patient leads that have been run over or stretched etc).

In the good old days I saw my fair share of moulded leads with poor earth continuity and the odd piece of Medical Equipment with a doggy earth.

I can remember 2 units that failed electrical isolation tests, both due to impact damage (one in a reps. Boot, and I already knew from the visual inspection to expect problems).

I have also had some failures of equipment that was not “Hospital Grade”, and was not manufactured to pass 60601 or 62353 tests.

But apart from the non Hospital Grade equipment I can not remember any failures in 20 plus years of using medical standard electrical testers that would not have been picked up with a PAT tester.

Am I alone in this? Or is it evidence of a selective memory?

Lee

No Lee, you are alone ... your experiences are probably typical, I would suggest.

For what it's worth, my own experiences certainly bear out what you are remembering here. But luckily for me, most of my "biomedding" was done overseas, so I have also seen a fair number of "unusual" situations as well (which I won't go into now).

Over the years I must have discovered hundreds of hazardous conditions, but (as I have probably mentioned before) almost all were able to be picked up by simple examination, my multimeter ... and, my nose!

So where does all that leave us? Thousands of man-hours "wasted" carrying out electrical safety tests? No, not really, just as long as the tech carries out an examination of the kit (plug, fuses(s), condition of the cable ... and all the rest) as well!

But ... when it comes to stuff like "mains on applied parts" at every test - or, worse still, carrying out EST on "auto-pilot", let's just say I'm not a Big Fan!