The introduction to the latest Association of Anaesthetists of Great Britain & Ireland (AAGBI) guidelines on checking anaesthesia machines implies that the check applies internationally for any anaesthetic machine [1], including those not yet manufactured. However, it appears to apply only to continuous-flow circle systems. There are many areas of the world where such devices either do not function or are not affordable. Generally, the checklist (p4 of the document) does not apply to drawover systems and associated equipment. For example, the high continuous flows used when checking an oxygen flush are contraindicated in any system with an inflating valve [2–4], including drawover apparatus, because they may lead to valve occlusion for as long as the flush button is depressed, risking pulmonary barotrauma. The reservoir bag in a circle system is designed to burst above pressures of 55 cmH2O, which mitigates this hazard. Furthermore, a drawover system has an open-ended tube or non-adjustable pressure relief valve, and an oxygen flush will simply vent into the atmosphere. Flush is used to fill a circle system, not to increase the fractional inspired oxygen concentration of the inspired gas, but a drawover system is not filled in this way. Flush also purges anaesthetic vapour from large-volume circle systems quickly, but this is not particularly necessary using smaller-volume drawover systems. In addition, flush is wasteful in systems where the oxygen supply is limited. With a concentrator-based system, the user will administer less oxygen to the patient, because the oxygen reserve becomes exhausted and diluted with air from the concentrator itself or from the breathing system. There is no flush specified in the ISO draft for drawover equipment (ISO/TS 18835 (2004)). It is a challenge to present workable anaesthesia workstations to anaesthetists in developing countries, who want a ‘proper’ anaesthetic machine, with an oxygen flush, as used in developed countries. Unfortunately, the AAGBI checklist reinforces this prejudice. However, three CE-marked draw-over Universal Anaesthesia Machines (UAM) are in clinical use by consultants and trainees in NHS hospitals in the UK, one for more than two years, and I would urge the AAGBI to provide a supplementary machine checklist for drawover machines.