CareHomeDeskCareHomeDeskEvery hoist, stairlift, passenger lift and bath hoist in a care home must undergo a thorough examination by a competent person under LOLER 1998, at least every 6 months.
The Lifting Operations and Lifting Equipment Regulations 1998 set out minimum thorough examination frequencies for lifting equipment used to lift people. Equipment used to lift persons, such as patient hoists, slings, ceiling track hoists, bath hoists and stairlifts, must be thoroughly examined by a competent person at least every 6 months. Passenger lifts follow the same 6-monthly interval where they carry people; where a lift is used only to carry goods and never people, the interval extends to at least every 12 months. Care homes should default to the 6-monthly interval for any equipment residents or staff could be lifted or carried by, rather than assuming the longer interval applies.
The shorter 6-month interval for equipment lifting people reflects the higher consequence of failure: a defect in a passenger-carrying lift or hoist puts a person, often someone frail or immobile, directly at risk of a fall or crush injury during use. Goods-only lifting equipment carries a lower direct risk to people and is therefore permitted a longer 12-month interval under LOLER, but providers should verify with their competent person exactly which category each piece of equipment falls into, since misclassifying a passenger lift as goods-only would leave it under-examined.
A typical care home may have far more LOLER-notifiable equipment than first assumed, including mobile and ceiling track hoists, hoist slings and spreader bars, bath hoists, stairlifts, platform lifts, and any passenger or goods lift within the building. A full equipment audit, walking every floor and bathroom, is the only reliable way to build a complete list, since equipment is easily missed if it is assumed to belong to visiting services such as the NHS wheelchair service rather than being tracked by the home itself, even where the home is responsible for arranging its examination.
Once every item is identified, each should be entered on a central schedule with its next due date calculated from its last examination, not simply from a fixed calendar date, since equipment purchased or last examined at different times will have staggered due dates. Scheduling examinations a few weeks ahead of the statutory deadline, rather than on the deadline itself, provides a safety margin for contractor availability and any follow-up repair work identified during the examination, and avoids equipment falling out of use unexpectedly when a booking cannot be met in time.
Equipment that passes its due date for thorough examination must be withdrawn from use immediately, regardless of whether it appears to be working normally, because the whole purpose of the statutory interval is to catch defects that are not visible in day-to-day use. The Health and Safety Executive can issue improvement or prohibition notices, and in serious cases has prosecuted providers, where lifting equipment used to move residents has been found without a current thorough examination. CQC treats overdue LOLER examinations as a direct safeguarding and Safe-domain concern during inspection.
The registered provider or manager is the duty holder responsible for ensuring examinations are arranged and current, even where day-to-day scheduling is delegated to a maintenance or facilities lead. Competent persons carrying out the examinations should hold recognised accreditation, for example through LEEA, and providers should retain evidence of that accreditation on file. Staff using the equipment day to day are not expected to carry out LOLER examinations themselves, but should be trained to recognise the examination label or certificate and to report any equipment without a current, visible record.
CareHomeDesk gives you compliance checklists, maintenance logs, and contractor management tools built around exactly this kind of knowledge.