MEDICAL DEVICES
Glasgow event covered medical device safety
A variety of topics related to medical devices and equipment safety were discussed by speakers at the fourth Health Facilities Scotland (HFS) Incident Reporting & Investigation Centre (IRIC) Conference in Glasgow, with delegates drawn from a wide range of disciplines – from health and safety and occupational health to estates management, medical physics, and decontamination. Sulisti Holmes, head of Decontamination, and of the Incident Reporting Investigation Centre, at Health Facilities Scotland, reports.
The fourth Health Facilities Scotland Incident Reporting & Investigation Centre (IRIC) Conference on ‘Medical Devices and Equipment Safety’ was held earlier this year at the Golden Jubilee Conference Hotel in Glasgow. The event was organised by the Scottish Health Service Centre and Health Facilities Scotland (HFS) – both parts of NHS National Services Scotland – and was attended by 150 delegates and sponsored by 18 exhibitors. The delegates came from a wide range of professional backgrounds, and included clinical, health and safety, occupational health, estates management, medical physics, equipment management, decontamination, nursing, and risk and quality management professionals, and research and innovation personnel from the higher education and the independent sectors.
The conference was run back-to-back with HFS’s Decontamination seminar, which was more focused on
decontamination of medical devices. The conference’s objectives were to explore the future of incident reporting and safety alerts at national level, to examine a range of current issues affecting medical devices management in Scotland, to share a local authority perspective on health and social care integration, to explore how clinicians and technologists can improve safety by working more closely with IRIC, and to scope out ‘cyber
risks’ and threats in a sector where the use of connected devices is rapidly increasing. The event was opened by Tom Steele, director of HFS, who welcomed everyone to the conference, and said he hoped it would help to develop current practice in improving the safety of equipment and medical devices. The morning sessions were chaired by Tom Steele and myself, and the afternoon session by Mike Winter, HFS Medical director.
‘Stocktake’ of Scottish ‘med tech’ landscape
Dr Sara Davies, Public Health Consultant at the Scottish Government, described the recent rapid ‘stocktake’ of the current Scottish ‘med tech’ landscape, which was carried out by the Scottish Government Health and Social Care Directorate Management Board. Its purpose was to provide information and recommendations to facilitate the development of an action plan to improve the arrangements, organisations, and policies, required to support the safe,
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The conference was opened by Tom Steele, director of HFS, who said he hoped it would encourage best practice.
effective, innovative, and efficient development and use of ‘med tech’. The work will be further developed once the new policy team is in place, and will deliver the plans through engagement with a range of stakeholders. In the meantime, several activities have been conducted and delivered, including cross- UK work on mesh implants, UK work on prospective audit / registry, participation on Scotland’s National Safety Alerts Oversight Group (NSAOG), MDR and IVDR Health Institution Exemption guidance, and a UK Health Summit on safety alerts and adverse event reporting on non-medicine technologies.
Five-year strategy
Innes Connor, IRIC manager at NHS National Services Scotland, explained IRIC’s role within Scotland, and the plans for improvement outlined in the IRIC’s 5- year strategy. This includes work on preventing suicides in healthcare premises, online data visualisation to give stakeholders direct access to information
The model of engagement with SAGs complements other forms of stakeholder engagement, and allows IRIC to work more closely, efficiently, and effectively, with stakeholders, resulting in more incident reporting
Mark Grumbridge, senior Clinical advisor, MHRA, explained the role of the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency as the ‘UK competent authority’.
Dr Sara Davies, Public Health Consultant at Scottish Government, described the recent rapid ‘stocktake’ of the current Scottish ‘med tech’ landscape.
October 2018 Health Estate Journal 55
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