STERILE SERVICES
Complete decontamination strategy for Midlands Trust
Gillian Hill, Clinical Services director of iM Med, the decontamination specialist, discusses the importance of a strategic approach to continuous best practice. This is demonstrated by recent work for University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire (UHCW) NHS Trust which, following positive experiences of iM Med’s service and maintenance support, implemented a complete decontamination strategy – equipment, project management, technical services, compliance training, and consumables.
With the ever-changing landscape of patient numbers, regulatory requirements, and best practice recommendations, Trusts and decontamination departments continually face new challenges and pressures to deliver effective, good quality services to patients. Ensuring compliance is a top priority, and patient safety is paramount, but this cannot be done in isolation. The focus has to be across the entire decontamination journey of the endoscope, which means looking at a complete decontamination strategy. The BSG 2020 guidance on the decontamination of endoscopes sets out a range of expert leadership, control, and recommendations to ensure that patient safety is always met. In summary, the guidance focuses on the need for: n Annual staff training. n Compliant disinfectants and detergent. n Manual and automated washing and disinfecting.
n Filtered air drying. n Microbiological water testing. n Single-use accessories. n Environmental control systems. n Safe endoscope transportation. n Appropriate staff PPE.
None of these points highlighted by the BSG are mutually exclusive, each impacting another. What if there was a complete decontamination strategy that pulled together the mutual aims and objectives that Trusts have regarding endoscope decontamination, and provided the right, related resources, products, services, and expertise, to achieve regulatory, financial, and clinical goals, guidance, and requirements?
A decontamination partnership Trusts and decontamination leads need to benefit from a partnership that delivers excellence in decontamination, not just separate layers of service provision. A partnership adds value, providing all the tools needed to drive improvement, reduce downtime, and ensure
Steelco’s innovative One Time Connection System (OCS).
compliance. Products and services are not provided in isolation, but delivered as end-to-end solutions that enhance outcomes, maximise investments, and optimise operational efficiencies. No work environment is the same, and no hospital experiences identical patient demand. Each decontamination unit is unique in its needs. This means that the most efficient and effective way to deliver patient safety, maximise quality, and support decontamination staff, is through a partnership – a mutual working relationship.
Significant growth
As a decontamination specialist, iM Med has seen significant growth since its inception, providing technical service support, decontamination equipment provision, decontamination consumables, and a range of education options, to hundreds of hospitals across the UK. With
a focus on enabling patient safety for healthcare providers, iM Med delivers a complete decontamination strategy for the entire endoscope decontamination journey.
The iM Med portfolio makes up a complete decontamination strategy for healthcare providers: n iM Equipment: The Steelco range of equipment, providing bespoke decontamination solutions.
n iM Technical: dedicated engineers providing rapid response times with a focus on first-time fix.
n iM Consumables: supporting and enabling all the stages of the decontamination journey, including UK- manufactured peracetic acid disinfectants.
n iM Compliance: national education conferences, bespoke CPD-certified courses, and technical support and advice.
January 2022 Health Estate Journal 45
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