April 2008 - Trading standards officers have launched a new national clamp down on hospital weighing scales that may put patients' lives in danger. Recent findings discovered that hospital staff had access to inappropriate medical scales or used inaccurate scales to calculate medicine doses for patients. One example showed that a four year old cancer patient, was weighed using basic bathroom scales in order for staff could figure out the correct dose of radiation treatment that should be administered to her. In a some cases weighing equipment had even been misplaced within the hospital. As a result of these findings, The Local Authorities Coordinators of Regulatory Services (LACORS) has established the 'National Medical Weighing Project' which will run through until April 2009. Geoffrey Theobald OBE, Chairman of LACORS, said: "Going into hospital for treatment can be a worrying time for many people, and it is important that patients have full confidence that they are being given the right dose of medicine or other treatments. The new National Medical Weighing Project will give patients the peace of mind that they are receiving the correct level of medication and will help hospitals iron out any problems involving the accuracy of their weighing equipment."
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