Medical Engineering Technician

Medical Engineering Technicians ensure that medical equipment is checked and maintained to ensure it is working properly and is safe to use.

You will work with an increasingly wide range of medical equipment in order to deliver healthcare services. This ranges from simple devices such as nebulisers to deliver treatment for respiratory patients through to sophisticated radiotherapy linear accelerators for cancer treatments and other cutting-edge technologies. All medical equipment needs to be checked to ensure it is working correctly and safe for patients and it is your role to do this.

Its not just safety checks and maintenance, though. Medical Engineering Technicians also get involved with the entire equipment lifecycle, including acceptance testing of new equipment, introducing equipment and devices into service, advising on the correct use of equipment, addressing patient safety issues, safely disposing of old devices.

Medical Engineering Technician is also known as Medical Engineer, Medical Equipment Engineer, Healthcare Science Practitioner.

Role Characteristics

Provide a comprehensive maintenance service for medical equipment
Acceptance test new medical equipment
Service and repair a wide range of often highly complex medical equipment
Calibrate, configure and the connection of highly complex medical equipment
Electrical safety testing to medical device standards
Recording work undertaken on Medical Equipment Management database

Skills

Working with groups
Team work
Specialist skills
Following instructions
Operating equipment
Record keeping

Day in the life

Watch this video to learn about Ryan, a Medical Engineering Apprentice.

Routes into this role

Here are some example routes that can lead into this role.

GCSEs

BTEC

T-Level

A-Levels

An apprenticeship

Undergraduate degree

How to become

There are many routes into Medical Engineering roles; these include university or apprenticeships.

You will normally need 5 GCSEs including English, maths, and sciences, or equivalent. You will normally need either A-Levels, BTEC or T-Levels depending on your preference in learning. You will normally need to complete either an undergraduate degree or apprenticeship in Medical Engineering.

It is important to check your preferred course provider's entry requirements for guidance.