The Department of Health has issued a recent warning to highlight potential dangers of weighing patients and medication on incorrectly calibrated scales.

Following an audit of several NHS organisations by LACORS, (The Local Authorities Coordinators of Regulatory Services). Say that many hospitals were using incorrectly calibrated weighing scales for weighing patients or medication. Hospital staff were also observed using inappropriate weighing scales, unsuitable for medical applications.

As a result of these findings, NHS organisations are being warned to ensure that patient weighing scales are regularly maintained and calibrated, and that they have a procedure in place to check the accuracy of their weighing equipment.

The following two types of weighing scales are used in hospitals and NHS organisations:

• Class III – accurate scales used for weighing medication, babies and monitoring purposes.

• Class IIII – less accurate, domestic type scales. Should only be used for checking a patient’s weight in a GP consulting room.

Important points to remember:

• Class IIII scales are NOT recommended for weighing medication, treatment, diagnosis or monitoring and should be replaced with more accurate Class III type scales.

• Weighing equipment that provides incorrect readings should be removed from use and re-calibrated.

Labels: hospital, medical, nhs, patient, scales