Job summary
Expected Shortlisting Date:
06/12/2024
Planned Interview Date:
07/01/2025
We have a vacancy for an enthusiastic and motivated Electronic Technician to play a key supporting role in the care and maintenance of a broad range of medical equipment. The job will be based at St Jamess Hospital and will involve work across all the Hospital sites. This is an opportunity for skilled electronics technicians to discover a challenging and rewarding career maintaining the vast range of equipment used in the treatment and diagnosis of patients here in one of the UKs largest teaching hospitals and at outlying Medical Centres. Work will be within the healthcare team and complement the work of the existing technical staff.
The minimum qualification for appointment is HNC, City and Guilds Part 3 or equivalent in Electronics and will have demonstrable experience in electronic equipment maintenance.
Prior knowledge/experience in the repair and servicing of medical equipment may be an advantage; however, candidates without this specific knowledge will also be considered.
Main duties of the job
Clinical Engineering is split into four service teams, this post is based in the support team and the main duties include: -
Repair and Maintenance of sophisticate electronic / electromechanical medical devices in a range of clinical environments across our hospital sites and community sites within the region.
Lifecycle management of medical devices - acceptance, support and decommissioning.
Trust medical device compliance management.
Hazard and Field Safety management of medical devices.
Travels to other hospitals, health centres and patients homes if necessary for the execution of work
Training/mentoring of junior staff and some elements of user training.
Working with clinical users to diagnose faults with devices in hospital and clinical settings.
About us
Clinical Engineering is part of the Medical Physics department at Leeds Teaching Hospital's NHS Trust. The clinical engineering section is concerned with the application of engineering knowledge and medical technologies to support and advance patient care and splits into 3 main sections. Clinical services/rehabilitation engineering, medical devices risk & governance and medical equipment management.
Clinical Engineering has input to a wide variety of clinical specialisms in terms of medical device support and work with tens of thousands of assets from basics monitors through to life support ventilators and anaesthetic machines.
Our Trust is one of the largest and busiest acute hospital trusts in the UK operating across five main sites with a common ethos to how we work and behave, 'The Leeds Way'. The Trust has programmes and benefits to support its employees from a subsidised gymnasium to lease car schemes.
Leeds Teaching Hospitals is committed to our process of redeploying 'at risk' members of our existing workforce to new roles. As such, all our job adverts are subject to this policy and we reserve the right to close, delay or remove adverts while this process is completed. If you do experience a delay in the shortlisting stage of the recruitment cycle, please bear with us while this process is completed, and contact the named contact if you have any questions.
Job description
Job responsibilities
1. JOB DETAILS
Job Title: Medical Engineering Technician, Clinical Engineering
Reports to: Team Leader
Band: Band 4
Department: Medical Physics & Engineering
Location St James Hospital/Leeds General Infirmary
AfC Job No: 1373b
2. JOB PURPOSE/SUMMARY
The Medical Physics & Engineering is responsible for the management of an extensive range of highly specialist medical equipment and related services throughout the Trust, community and private healthcare. These services are delivered by teams of technical officers and the incumbent is a member of one of these teams, responsible to its Team Leader. The technician will be expected to work closely and effectively with other technical and the clinical staff in the clinical areas for which the team is responsible, to ensure delivery of a high quality service. The post may be based at either St Jamess or the LGI. The medical equipment may include patient monitoring and life support equipment, surgical systems, anaesthesia systems, hospital beds, hoists, infusion devices, ultrasound, x-ray, renal, radiotherapy and medical laboratory equipment.
The post holder works typically in a team, jointly responsible for the repair and maintenance of approximately 8,000 items of medical devices. All work is supervised in the areas of servicing, repair, calibration, storage and handling of expensive / complex medical equipment (values range between £1000 to £100,000 each).
3. PRINCIPAL DUTIES & AREAS OF RESPONSIBILITY
Carries out supervised service, repair, safety checking, and calibration of diagnostic and therapeutic equipment for use in patient care
Uses fault finding skills and judgement to diagnose faults in complex equipment for clinical use.
Regularly carries out acceptance testing on new medical equipment.
Provides basic support for specialist items such as intensive care and operating theatre equipment.
Work is guided by departmental procedures, quality manual documents and national recommendations. Comments on changes to operational policies that may impact on own area.
Travels to other hospitals, health centres and patients homes if necessary for the execution of work.
Responsible for maintaining the equipment inventory database by recording own work and own measurements on medical equipment.
Attends breakdown calls and undertakes preventative maintenance / calibration tasks as directed to meet clinical need, accessibility.
Evaluates new equipment as part of equipment purchasing strategy.
Carries out authorised modifications to medical equipment.
Supports the construction of clinical devices as appropriate and under the direction of the Head of Clinical Engineering or designated deputy.
4. THE LEEDS WAY VALUES
Our values are part of what make us different from other trusts, so we see this as a strength, as well as a responsibility. They have been developed by our staff and set out what they see as important to how we work. Our five values are:
Patient-centred
Collaborative
Fair
Accountable
Empowered
All our actions and endeavours will be guided and evaluated through these values
Additionally, the following are core values which relate specifically to this post:
Aware of the requirement for timeliness, safety, reliability and quality in all work carried out and ensures that high standard is maintained.
Operates and adheres to the Departmental Quality Management system.
The Trust has a statutory duty to involve patients and public in evaluating and planning services. All staff have a responsibility to listen to the views of patients and to contribute to service improvements based on patient feedback.
The jobholder should respect patient confidentiality at all times and not divulge patient information unless sanctioned by the requirements of the role.
5. WEST YORKSHIRE ASSOCIATION OF ACUTE TRUSTS (WYAAT)
Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust is part of the West Yorkshire Association of Acute Trusts (WYAAT), a collaborative of the NHS hospital trusts from across West Yorkshire and Harrogate working together to provide the best possible care for our patients.
By bringing together the wide range of skills and expertise across West Yorkshire and Harrogate we are working differently, innovating and driving forward change to deliver the highest quality care. By working for Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust this is your opportunity to be a part of that change.
WYAAT is the acute sector arm of the West Yorkshire and Harrogate Health and Care Partnership, one of the largest integrated care systems in the country. The Partnerships ambition is for everyone to have the best possible health and wellbeing, and the work of WYAAT, and each individual trust, supports that ambition.
6. INFECTION CONTROL
The jobholder must comply at all times with the Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust Infection Control policies, in particular by practising Universal Infection Control Precautions. Hand hygiene must be performed before and after contact with patients and their environment.
7. HEALTH AND SAFETY / RISK MANAGEMENT
All staff are responsible for working with their colleagues to maintain and improve the quality of services provided to our patients and other service users. This includes complying at all times with the Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust Policies, including Health and Safety policies, in particular by following agreed security and safer working procedures, and reporting incidents using the Trust Incident Reporting system
8. EQUALITY AND DIVERSITY
The jobholder must comply with all policies and procedures designed to ensure equality of employment and that services are delivered in ways that meet the individual needs of patients and their families. No person whether they are staff, patient or visitor should receive less favourable treatment because of their gender, ethnic origin, age, disability, sexual orientation, religion etc.
9. TRAINING AND PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
The jobholder must take responsibility in agreement with his/her line manager for his/her own personal development by ensuring that Continuous Professional Development remains a priority. The jobholder will undertake all mandatory training required for the role.
10. COMMUNICATION & WORKING RELATIONSHIPS
Communicates with team members and other Clinical Engineering colleagues.
Develop effective working relationships with clinical staff in the areas for which the team is responsible.
Discusses complex equipment faults and technical issues with equipment manufacturers and suppliers, conveys technical information to non-technical staff nurse.
Provides routine advice, basic user training and instruction on equipment both within the Trust and within community and private care areas.
11. SPECIAL WORKING CONDITIONS
i) PHYSICAL EFFORT:
Daily requirement for manual dexterity, accurate hand-eye co-ordination and use of precision tools / instruments in the repair delicate medical equipment.
Move equipment weighing up to 15Kg, typically two or more times a week.
Move equipment weighing 2 to 5 Kg several times a day.
Occasional requirement to move heavy equipment from wall mountings for service / repair.
ii) MENTAL EFFORT:
Daily need to concentrate on fine detail during fault finding typically for periods of between 1 and 2 hours.
Travels to other hospitals, health centres and patients homes if necessary for the execution of work
iii) EMOTIONAL EFFORT:
Working on patient connected equipment in areas such as accident and emergency and at ICU bedside often with distressed relatives present (typically 2-3 times per month).
iv) WORKING CONDITIONS:
Daily exposure to noise, solvents, dust, bodily excretions and blood.
Daily work on powered electronic systems, often live and in awkward positions.
Work on high-pressure gas systems/hydraulic system.
Person Specification
Other Criteria
Essential
1. Manual dexterity, accurate hand-eye co-ordination and use of precision tools / instruments in the repair delicate medical equipment.
Qualifications
Essential
2. HNC/Diploma level technical knowledge, however entry qualifications maybe at apprenticeship level.
Desirable
3. Training on relevant equipment
Experience
Essential
4. Knowledge of engineering, procedures and practice, underpinned by equipment training and significant experience in the field.
5. Proven ability to interpret complex facts, analyse and fault find on complex equipment.
Desirable
6. Sound knowledge of computer database / skills
Skills & behaviours
Essential
7. Able to manage own time, working to objectives set monthly by the team leader.
8. Ability to work flexibly.
9. Ability to cope with large and unpredictable workload.
10. Team working.
11. Excellent communication skills.
12. Ability to convey complex technical information to non-technical staff.