Medical Scales

What are Medical Scales?

Medical Scales are weighing scales used in a medical environment – typically hospitals, GP surgeries, care homes and clinics. Weighing patients is an essential part of medical assessment and is also a key way of calculating drug dosages or treatment required. Such weighing requires a high degree of accuracy and reliability, hence why Marsden medical scales are Class III Approved.

What is a Class III Approved scale?

In the UK, the NAWI (Non Automatic Weighing Instruments) Directive on medical weighing states that any scale used for “determination of mass in the practice of medicine for weighing patients for the purpose of monitoring, diagnosis and medical treatment” must be Class III Approved.

Class III Approved scales undergo a rigorous test programme conducted by an EU Notified Body. This type of testing is not carried out on standard weighing scales, and ensures Class III Approved scales are reliable, accurate and provide repeatable readings (the weight reading is the same if a patient steps off the scale and back on again, for example).

Class III Approved scales carry a ‘III’ logo on their dataplate.

Which medical scales do I need?

Marsden provides medical scales for just about any medical weighing requirement. We supply more medical scales to NHS hospitals in the UK than any other provider, and we also supply scales suitable for GP surgeries, pharmacies, clinics and health visitors.

To make your purchasing process easier, determine the type of patient you need to weigh, and the largest capacity the scale is likely to need. For example, scales for care homes tend to be chair scales, as many patients will not be able to stand.

Marsden baby scales are largely designed for portability and ease of use, with highly precise readings for weighing. This is perfect if you are a midwife, health visitor or lactation consultant

On the other end of the spectrum, if you need to weigh bed bound patients, the M-950 is an easy way of getting a weight without the patient having to leave their bed.

You can use our medical scales Product Finder, above, to help you find the right weighing scales faster.

What are Wireless Scales?

You may have noticed some weighing scales listed on this website carry Bluetooth and Wifi logos. These are our wireless scales.

These future proof weighing scales scales have been designed for telehealth initiatives and hospitals with a commitment to becoming paperless, allowing the weight data of a patient to be transferred directly from the weighing scale, to a handheld device, PC or central patient database.

Marsden does not supply software for capturing the information from Bluetooth and wifi scales; however, we have worked closely with many Trusts and Telehealth providers to ensure our scales are compatible with their own systems. For more information, call the Marsden team on 01709 364296.

Does Marsden supply to overseas customers?

Marsden, a British company, has supplied medical scales to customers in the UK for over 50 years. Today, Marsden has distributors in 23 countries throughout the EU and now sells its medical scales as far afield as US, Middle East, Australia and New Zealand. For more information about our dealers around the world, go to our International Distributors page.