16th November 2010
Dear Colleague
The ICS is in the process of redrafting their standards for critical care units. As part of this process we have produced some draft standards for medical equipment in critical care. Before publishing these standards we would like some feedback from clinical leads and equipment leads that would allow us to improve the standards prior to publication. To help with this process we would be very grateful if you could review the standards and complete the questionnaire that can be found at:
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/PDCN2SD
We would also be happy for you to annotate the copy of the standards attachment to the e-mail and return the annotated version to: tony.thomas@srft.nhs.uk.
In writing the standards, we felt that they could be improved by adding examples of forms used to get feedback from staff about new equipment and other documents and protocols concerning equipment that individual units may have spent a lot of time designing. If you have any such documents we would also be grateful if you could forward them by e-mail to: tony.thomas@srft.nhs.uk.
Some medical equipment purchased by ICU is very expensive, and deciding which make of equipment to buy can be difficult. In writing the standards it occurred to us that an informal network of medical equipment leads could be helpful in allowing units to share experiences about recently purchased equipment. This is why we ask for contact details of medical equipment leads, what medical equipment you have recently purchased and if you would have found it useful to have been able to have access to colleagues views about similar equipment that that they have purchased.
Lastly, there are a number of DOH publications suggesting that medical equipment libraries offer the potential to improve clinical care while delivering significant cost savings. Unfortunately, we could not find literature evaluating the success of these libraries, so we would be grateful for any views colleagues may have about how useful they have been in Trusts where they have been adopted.
Thank you for reviewing these standards. If you have any additional comments not covered in the questionnaire, please feel free to reply to this e-mail to tony.thomas@srft.nhs.uk.
With best wishes,
Yours sincerely,
Dr Antony Thomas, Consultant in ICM, Salford Royal Hospitals
Dr Justin Roberts, Specialist Registrar in ICM, North West Rotation
