What is the situation where a hospital bed has both weighing and other medical functions? Which Directives apply?
Council Directive 90/384/EEC covers non-automatic weighing instruments (NAWIs). In that Directive Article 1.2(a) indent 4 requires instruments used for the purposes stated therein to meet the essential requirements through one or other of the appropriate conformity assessment procedures, eg EC type examination followed by EC verification. Indent 4 covers: ” determination of mass in the practice of medicine for the weighing of patients for the purposes of monitoring, diagnosis and medical treatment “. This includes activities where medical staff are responsible for the weighing of patients. Examples are the use of weighing instruments in hospitals, health centres or taken into the community for medical purposes. Medical staff includes all persons that lawfully carry out the medical weighing tasks concerned in their Member State. There is some comment about the scope of the Directive in “WELMEC 2.7” which was prepared by the Directorate-General Industry of the European Commission, in col
