Consulting Room Equipment
As a locum coming into your practice I want to be able to easily offer it effective care to your patients. To facilitate this it would help considerably if the rooms I use are appropriately equipped. The following is a suggested list of clinical equipment for the consulting room which I consider appropriate. If significant items are missing then I would appreciate advance notice.
Equipment
- Weighing scales
- Height meter
- Snellen chart (and a marked the distance from which the patient should read it)
- Calendar/year planner
- Plain Paper
- Practice Headed Paper
- Prescription Pad
- Printer prescription paper
- Med 3/4/5/ Private Sick Notes
- Sphygmomanometer
- Tuning fork
- Diagnostic Set with (if appropriate, disposable) ear pieces
- Thermometer (and if appropriate supply of disposable covers)
- PEFR chart
- Obstetric calculation wheel
- Folder of practice protocols and local referral documents
- Appropriate supply of FPA Contraceptive methods leaflets (usually available free to practices from family planning clinics or local health board)
Clinical supplies
- Microbiology Request Forms
- Clinical Lab forms (yellow for bloods etc)
- Disposable gloves
- Universal Sample Bottles
- Urine Sample Bottles
- MSU kits
- Faces kits
- Microbiology (black), Throat (yellow) & chlamydia swabs
- Gynaecology examination equipment: specula, cytobrush; smear kit
- Box of tissues
- Plastic specimen bags
- Sharps bin
- KY Jelly
Access to (can be available elsewhere in practice)
- Drug cupboard/Vaccines fridge/Anaphylaxis kit/Oxygen
- Nebulizer and nebules
- Placebo inhalers and spacer device for demonstration
- Foetal heart monitor and water-soluble jelly (KY works as well)
- Pregnancy test kits
- Mycology sample kits
- Eye examination equipment: fluorescein, dilating drops, saline, blue light
- Other equipment (e.g. ECG machine, spirometer, electrocautery, etc:)
Sources: The GP Registrar Survival Guide; BMJ: Improving quality in locum general practice;NASGP Handbook for Non-Principals in General Practice;Viaduct Medical Practice Locum Pack Equipment list; personal experience and suggestions from other locums.