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

Having only very brief experience in the UK, I ask,..is it not possible to separate entirely the electrical testing of "Portable Equipment" from the electrical testing of Medical Equipment or is it the same team employed to carry out testing on both groups??
Whilst there has been much said about the EN 62353 at least finally there is a standard that is far more pertinent to our field than the EN 601, in its various editions, ever was.
At last we have visual inspections, electrical safety and functional/performance testing grouped together, I'm sure you concur that a diathermy or similar that sails through its EST but erogates twice its rated output is never going to be deemed hazardous during an EST alone.
However the fly in the ointment is just how much time and money do have to carry out all of the required testing and whilst I agree whole heartedly with Geoff about auto-pilot EST I can still remember using an in-house built " break out switch box" ,milliohm and milliampere testers testing to BS 5724 but there were no time or monetary constraints(read HM Armed Forces).

Although it may be possible to provide lists of non-medical and medical electrical items, how are you going to deter the guys from Mutt & Jeff PAT Services, who (as has already been mentioned) are happy to just come in and "test" everything in sight that has a mains plug on it (and get paid for each piece of kit they apply a sticker to)! Different coloured mains plugs? Yet another "sticker" (colour-coded "dot" ... whatever)? Or someone to (waste time having to) accompany them the whole time - who may as well be doing the EST's themselves?

To my mind, the "answer" (in hospitals, at least) is to bring back the whole thing (electrical safety testing of equipment with a mains plug) squarely under the control of the biomed department. Yes, kettles and all! If the biomeds lack sufficient manpower, then they can always seek to bring in someone from outside - but the exercise should always remain under the control of the biomeds!

But surely you haven't waited until now (that is, with the introduction of 62353) to be "told" to carry out visual inspections, functional and performance testing, and electrical safety tests at the same time, Malcolm? We used to call it PM ... or, if you prefer (as I do), I/PM.

Even back in the early days of "Electro-med" in HM Forces we used to do all that, although (in those days) we used to call them (monthly, quarterly, annual etc.) "inspections"! Never mind 62353, 601, or even 5724; what about HTM-8? Ha, ha.

But yes ... those were also the Happy Days when we had to "make do" with an Avo 8 and a (hand-wound) Megger. Plus (if you were lucky, a Camsafe - which no-one else on here has yet admitted to ever having heard about)!

... sorry, guys.


And now that acrostics have been in the news, no doubt we can also expect to see (or perhaps not, as the case may be) some of those on here, too.

You have been warned!

You're right Barney, but the problem is that the GP surgeries and other parts of what were PCTs and are now CCGs find that calling in a PAT company is the easiest way to prove that they have had things regularly maintained. Everything gets a sticker, and they get their QOF points (or whatever they are called now, because that was a PCT thing...)

I found this thread searching for help regarding equipment that had been in rude good health until a recent PAT event, and which has failed suspiciously soon since. The company which did the tests has, before now, "safety tested" a power supply pack with the most mangled wire you ever saw, and didn't balk at at sticking their equipment ID sticker and a "passed" label on it. I have yet to find out what their price per unit is, but that is how they seem to work...

If we are going to play the regulation game properly, why is there no means of legally stopping these shysters who PAT things that shouldn't be PATed and sometimes blow things up?

It is right that the GPs don't know the difference in the regulations - they shouldn't have to know, or have to watch out that they are not being ripped off by double charging or false claims of competence from the testing companies. If the companies cannot offer an honest service, they shouldn't be able to get into medical settings in the first place.

There is a (well-established) company active in GP surgeries (and such like) advertising for staff on here at the moment.

Take a look at their website (which is very good). Most of the "questions" are answered there.

CCGs
QOF

... any more?

Hello Clare

As I have previously suggested, where does it ever say (except on literature from a PAT or Medical Testing company) that you have to electrically test any portable equipment. The fact is you don't, whilst it may be a good idea and sensible all the law expects is that you put into practice reasonable measures to ensure the safety of electrical equipment. In most cases I would advocate all that is required is a formal visual inspection, the H&SE certainly do not have their computers and other office machinery electrically tested each year.

It is my opinion the health and safety culture has long ago left all common sense behind (common sense just gets in the way).

As for medical equipment, most equipment in hospitals are not tested as frequently as office machinery that seldom moves, furthermore the items tested are more than often connected to IEC leads that have never been tested. IEC leads pose a greater threat to safety than most medical equipment. So, in a PCT Doctors' surgery perhaps a PAT test is better than nothing. After all, after passing a visual inspection (the most important test) what hazard does a class2 (B or BF) nebulizer for example pose a patient? Other than a visual inspection what is the point of electrically testing a class 2 item anyway?

I'm sure that I will receive some replies.

PAT testing / electrical safety testing portable equipment has become a FARCE due to misleading information from companies profiting from the rip off.

Perhaps the link below will rule out all the lies and myths regarding electrical testing.

http://www.hse.gov.uk/electricity/faq-portable-appliance-testing.htm

That's a good link, Barney.

But just to re-cap:- the OP (original post to this thread) was little more than a Clarion Call to BS EN 62353. But Mike was (is) right:- there is no need for "PAT" testing at medical premises.

Proper (medical) EST is a different proposition, however; if only in that it is (normally) carried out by folk with a bit of understanding of the issues surrounding the "clinical environment" as a whole.

But I believe that the emphasis placed upon electrical safety testing (EST) per se is slightly misguided, and that it is far better to think in terms of I/PM (inspections and preventive maintenance on a regular, scheduled, basis).

I/PM should include EST when and where appropriate (that is, in almost all cases involving medical equipment - if only on the basis of "seeing that we're already there anyway" [in front of the machine, and in the clinical environment]). And ... as I must have said at least a zillion times on this forum ... the real value of I/PM is that it brings a technician into contact with each and every machine on a more-or-less regular basis.

And any technician worth his (her) salt should "do the needful" (whatever is required to return the equipment to full and safe serviceability) whilst the machine is in front of them.

"A Stitch in Time Saves Nine" ... "A Place for Everything; and Everything in its Place" ... and all the rest of that Good Stuff (I'm sure y'all get the picture)!

Looking at it from another angle, I wonder what will happen when equipment in GP surgeries gets more advanced. So far the demise of the PCTs has meant that more GP surgeries are now carrying out procedures which previously would have been carried out in a hospital's outpatient department or clinic. Also given the push to treat more patients in the community, we're going to start to see more advanced equipment with district nurses.

Thus I wonder how long will it be before we start to see equipment coming in faulty as a PAT test company has given it a zap and not followed the correct shut down procedure?

Yet again the "answer" (surely?) is to get some real biomeds in there ... and give "Tester PAT" the elbow, once and for all!

Surely testing of medical equipment is more than just sticking it on an electrical safety tester. I would have thought that a few basic checks of function were needed as well.
We should stop talking about "electrical safety testing" and emphasise "safety testing".
Then Testman Pat would not get a look in.
Robert