We don't have patients, but staff do bring in their own equipment. We can test this inhouse and 'approve' its use. Visual inspection is a very important part of all electrical inspection, so its good to see that as a first step. Would it be possible to advise patients to use a dedicated socket? In view of any staff, less likely for equipment to be hidden under bed sheets etc. For example our cleaners sockets are all rcd protected, not that rcds are the saviour of electrical protection, but its another level of protection, and our cleaners can never ' remember' to bring the rcd adaptor. Very difficult to manage in your environment, look how many people pay no notice to mobile phone warning signs! Best of luck

As per the HSE guidance on maintaining portable electrical equipment (INDG236) http://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/indg236.pdf a simple user check and visual inspection is enough to pick up many electrical issues. The old HSE guidance used to say that you could pick up to 90% of electrical issues from visual inspection, but upon revision that appears to have disappeared. So, in effect the staff do not have to be experts, but I would say that if you are asking staff to undertake visual checks of patients electrical equipment that you provide some simple training to equip them with some basic electrical knowledge. There is no requirement to PAT test every electrical item and in this case I feel that a simple visual check is suitable, the caveat being training for staff. FireSafety’s post regarding a charger from Hong Kong I feel is not relevant and does not contribute any information upon which tony can utilise with regards to his question. As for reference to a recent fire in the UK, the fact that the fire investigator stated that the fire was possibly caused by a charging unit indicates to me that they were not certain otherwise it would have been described as being the immediate cause and not the possible cause. Having undertaken fire investigation training (I work for a Fire and Rescue Service) it is sometimes the case that you cannot state 100% the immediate cause of a particular fire, but I am still not sure what the relevance of a Hong Kong charger (and iPod) is in relation to the initial question. I would like some further information on the fire FireSafety is referring to to understand what the connection is. Hope the above helps tony.

And how exactly are you going to test an ipod and charger, other than by visual inspection? The charger is usually sealed, the output in the form of a USB socket, and the electronics within do not have anything you can test...no transformer, as such. And physically intrusive test/examination will damage the item/s.

Chris, I was not the original poster, this was SBH. Cheers Tony