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Extinction!
I received an e mail today from an American biomed, who has our profession at heart.
I am concerned, as he is, that we are gradually being eroded as in house departments (no offense to those of you who are not)
In America 25 - 40% of biomedical and clinical engineering departments have been taken over by large companies such as GE, Siemens etc who offer the same or better services at lower prices.
We have only just started to experience this in the UK but it is becoming a 'run-away train' in the States and if we don't want the same thing to happen in this country we should be doing something about it now.
These companies approach the Trust Board offering what on the surface seem very attractive incentives. You may not even know that the trust board has been approached, and by time the presentation has been carried out by the company it may already be too late.
We as a profession need to address these questions.
Will these companies do a better job, do we want to work for medical companies (will they offer us better pay?), Can we offer good procurement advice if we working for a company which also manufactures?
This is already happening, what do we want?

I can't claim any originality for this - a coleague of mine came up with the analogy.
We're like a herd of cows being looked after in a field by a farmer who comes along every now and then takes one of them away to be slaughtered. The other cows stop eating, watch their companion being taken away - and then just go back to eating the grass.
The decision at Hope hospital has apparently been deferred for a month - mainly because the consultants and senior medical staff raised such a stink at the public meeting and were heavily in favour of the in-house department.
It's the clinicians who have a lot of power - so we need to have them on our side. I'm sure we all try and give them the best service we can - but do they really apreciate us and are we good enough at putting ourselves forward ? We need powerful friends, so let's get out there and make some !