As one of the few UK manufacturers, Platts & Nisbett has always put quality at the forefront of everything we do. We are hopeful that the recent feature on the BBC will help to raise awareness, and highlight problems at procurement level within some NHS Trusts. We strongly believe that all manufacturers and suppliers of this type of equipment should be subject to quality checks – not just of paperwork but of the instruments themselves. Without mandatory inspections how can patient safety be properly protected?
If you are responsible for the …

The BBC has discovered that poor quality surgical instruments which are not fit for purpose are being supplied to the NHS. Panorama has found that this imported substandard equipment can put patients at risk, by causing life threatening infections and injuries. Faults include rough edges, steel burrs, and corroded metals – any of which will have serious implications if used in an operating theatre. Poor quality surgical instruments have been identified as a likely cause of MRSA infections, as instruments with rough edges have caused microscopic holes in surgical gloves, …

Michael Debakey, the pioneering cardiac surgeon was born 7th September 1908. His parents were Lebanese immigrants who influenced his choice of career from an early age. He was inspired to undertake medical training after listening to conversations in his father’s pharmacy, and during his career he later went on to credit much of his surgical success to his mother, for teaching him to sew and knit as a child.
Michael Debakey attended the Tulane University, in New Orleans. Whilst still in medical school in 1932 he invented the roller pump, which …

On the 24th August 79AD, Mount Vesuvius erupted explosively, burying Pompeii under a crust of volcanic ash. For the next seventeen centuries the city would remain lost, forgotten and preserved, sealed in a time capsule. Since excavations began in 1748, Pompeii was gradually revealed – street by street, building by building, room by room, providing an unparalleled record of life in the Roman Empire.
During this time, literary records tell us that the head of the household was often responsible for the physical health of his family, and as such would …