Decontamination
Lessons from the north
Elaine Fugard looks at attaining best practice with local decontamination in dentistry
I
t is widely accepted that decontami- nation of reusable medical devices plays a large part in the prevention of Health Care Associated Infections (HCAI) and, it must be remembered
that improving and sustaining decontami- nation services forms an important part of ensuring patient safety. Considering the high volume of patients
treated within a dental practice, the amount of daily instrumentation generated the potential for indirect patient-to-patient infection could be described as signifi- cant. Of importance too are the changing demographics of patients. The increase in elderly patients retaining
natural teeth who are more susceptible to infection alongside the general increase
in people living with impaired immu- nity highlights the requirement for high standards in decontaminationı
will explore some of the key elements of compliance with national guidance in Northern Ireland (NI) for general dental practices (GDP) and communicate some lessons learnt from the journey.
Background A large scale survey commissioned by NHS Scotland in 20042
was tasked with
focusing specifically on local decontami- nation processes and their application within primary care dentistry. The conclu- sions of this study determined a clear need for the review of decontamination within dental practices if the risk of transmission
of pathogens was to be minimised. This lead to a drive across the UK to
. This article
introduce standards specifically for use in GDP focusing on improvement of practice and resulted in the implementa- tion of HTM 0ı-05: Decontamination in primary care dental practice3
, a docu-
ment which was later reviewed in 20ı3. England, Wales and Northern Ireland adopted the guidance while Scotland was considerably ahead of the game and remained with the Scottish Local Decon- tamination Unit Guidance. The timeline set down by the Chief Dental Officer in NI required practitioners to be compliant with the first benchmark, essential quality
Ireland’s Dental magazine 35 Continued »
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