EBME Forums Forums Free discussion Free discussion Keymed

I am canvassing for any information on the servicing and repair of Olympus equipment as supplied by Keymed.Has anyone out there been on a service course with Keymed? Do any EBME's carry out there own servicing and had problems getting spares? Yours views would be most appreciated. OlympusKeymed

I came across a chap years ago, whilst on a course at Falfield, who did exactly what you ask!, I think he worked at " Frenchy Hospital" , I think that's near Bristol. Sorry I can't remember exactly, it was a long time ago. Maybe you could contact Falfield, as I think they have close links with the hospital?

We service the keymed electromed equipment.
Most faults are easily rectified, those that are not we send back to keymed and ask for a loan item whilst ours is repaired.

Keymed scopes are a different matter. We send all our scopes off for repair after being checked to ensure the lens is clean.
Keymed rigid scopes can be repaired by Microscopix:
Name: Bob Hollingsworth
Telephone: 01992 469085
Mobile: 07711 979150
email: atrh@mx-l.com at approximately 25% of the cost of sending them to Keymed, and they do a good job.

We tend to send flexible fibrescopes to Medical Device Services (MDS), and the flexible videoscopes to Keymed.

(This saves the trust a wad of money, and well worth trying. I can't take the credit because the idea came from Ray Emslie.)

I'm sure someone gave a presentation at one of the H.P. Biomed Enbgineering Conferences in Birmingham a few years ago - but I can't find it in the old programmes - about doing a complete repair / maintenance service on flexible scopes. I think he was from one of the big hospitals in Ireland, but I can't remember which one. They did everything in-house and although it had cost a lot to set up, was saving them a fortune!
Does this ring any bells with anyone ? Anyone able to put a name to it ?

for scope repairs in EIRE contact:

Med Phsyics at St James's Hospital
Dublin
tel:0035314537941
fax:0035314732712

A Brian McMahon presented a paper back in 1992 entitled:

"The on-going development of an in-house endoscopy support service"

Try contacting them perhaps we can all go and have a visit??

Yup,
It is indeed St James (Brian McMahon). They run 4 day courses on minor scope repairs, which are very useful.
Unfortunately, if you cannot source the parts from Keymed you don't really get off the ground. Very few people have made inroads into getting such support from Keymed. St James were successful because they were able dangle a big carrot a few years back - the complete equipping of an endoscopy unit (£4 million I think?), so they had Keymeds complete attention!

Still I would be keen to know if any other biomed dept has been successful - particularly if they did'nt have top weild a stick!!

Thanks
Nice to know Keymed are just as helpful as ever!
I am not too interested in repairing the scopes yet but I'm sure we can handle the rest of the kit. Keymed are willing to give us a training course but the cost is £75/hour(about the same as my solicitor).
It would be interesting to hear if their courses are value for money or not.
A trip to EIRE would be nice.

The scope course was full of practical/useful info - if a bit technologically dated (most of the hands on scope were pretty old), with hands on sessions covering disassembly/basic repairs (channel blocks, BSR replacements, angulation adjustments etc) which constitute the vast majority of simple problems which can be resolved locally.

Unfortunately, unless you can source the parts to do this work, it is difficult to put it into practice - even though pots of money can be saved + scopes have a greater up time. (this does not consider the liability 'risks' )

Summary: Great educational course, but expensive if you cannot apply what you learned. (+ the guinness tastes a lot better!)