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What sort of A4C grades are staff on that do mainly community based items for example ex PCT community nursing equipment?

Exactly the same A4C grades that the hospital based staff are on. You'll probably find equipment will gradually get more advanced in the community as services are moved from hospital outpatients into the community.

... and from there to the "Point of Care", Chris.

That's the future of medical equipment. Yes, there will always be a need for hospital-based kit (x-ray systems, surgical kit and so forth), but there will be a growing trend towards individual (personalised, whatever) devices - especially in the monitoring and respiratory therapy "domains". Smaller, ambulatory, "wireless", internet enabled ... and all the rest.

Some of it could even be apps on a Smart-Phone!

Indeed, the local hospital will need to house the cell-phone masts (as many already do), not to mention the servers to host the software, and store and distribute all that data.

For me, the big question is:- will there still be a need for biomed techs to look after such stuff, or will it be "maintenance free" and simply exchanged (or binned) if and when it fails?

PS: no need to worry about "mains on applied part" with stuff like that!

Surely it's not only a question of how advanced the kit is ... but also (or rather) the fact that the guy is out and about in the "community", visiting patients and interfacing with them directly on their home (often literally) ground.

Not everyone has the personal skills to be successful at (or indeed, hack) that ... so I reckon that needs to be acknowledged (and dare I suggest:- rewarded) straight up front.

Yes Geoff there is a move for home based monitoring, but with the creation of the GP consortia there was less referrals to hospitals.

So where in the past a patient might have had to attend hospital for a 13 week scan, podiatry, ecg, wart removal to name a few they now get that treatment either in their local gp surgery or in their own home. (if anything it's the hospital equipment moved to a new location)

Question is with this equipment moving out of hospitals, will the biomeds follow the equipment?

... well yes; after all, someone will need to be able to fix the mobility scooter, and (or) the stair-lift. Not to mention blowing the fag-ash out of the nebulizer compressor and CPAP device!

"It's biomed, Jim. But not as we know it"!

Yes Chris I have seen a number of jobs advertised by Trusts for biomeds to service mainly community based equipment including home visits. The reason for my original question was these jobs were graded at bands 4 and 5. Previously band 6 techs have performed this type of work alongside hospital based equipment.

What salaries p.a. do those pay bands equate to these days?

But whatever they are, no doubt there are companies around (and, indeed, freelance biomeds) who would be happy to do it for less. Not to mention the legions of keen young migrants from beyond our shores (who seemingly are generally willing to have a go at anything).

And what's to prevent any of the multitude of private "Care" companies (you know, like the ones we hear about in the news so often) from adding "biomed services" to their portfolios?

Welcome to the New Reality, Billy ... where everyone is set in competition with everyone else (dog-eat-dog?) - and that competition is not just local, but effectively world-wide (or the rest of "Europe", at the very least).

That's how things work in the UK, now ... not perhaps the survival of the fittest, but rather the survival of those willing to under-cut the rest.

In fact, thinking about it, jobs like that would be probably be most welcome by old biomeds seeking to step back from the stresses of hospital work.

Did anyone else see the news report about the bogus radiographer who was recruited from India following an "interview" conducted on Skype?

Actually there isn't (although I'm sure that will change) and if anything those "Care" companies have been well and truly b**g*r*'d by the recent changes in government health policy.

It may have been that freelance biomeds and small companies could pick off one or two little contracts but now if anything some of those GP consortia are like small Trusts in their own right, possibly justifying their own biomed departments.

Anyway getting back to the topic from what I've seen Billy it depends a lot on what equipment is involved and who's running things (some old PCT's have found themselves running ebme departments). If your talking of the equipment Geoff's talking about, the nebs and chair lifts, then yes I have seen jobs advertised for band 4 and 5, but if your talking about ultrasound, patient monitoring, x-ray, ventilators, renal ect your looking at band 6.

One thing to note is freedom to act, at a band 5 post the AFC handbook states that the post is managed rather than supervised, unless you send someone out in the community in pairs with someone on a higher grade, how do you supervise someone who is miles from any management?