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.