STERILE SERVICES FACILITIES
The two Portakabin buildings which the temporary facility comprises were built to SSD’s specification, ready for the installation of the equipment once the two units were positioned onsite. The location presented its own issues, with the Portakabin buildings having to be carefully craned into position over a nearby bridge, precariously close to the second storey operating theatres. Everything was arranged in advance, and all appropriate departments notified. The road was closed while the offloading and positioning was underway by the specialist team from Portakabin. The whole process was completed within two hours.
Once the units were in position, the task of connecting them to the required services and fitting out with equipment could begin. One, smaller Portakabin building is the plantroom, housing the reverse osmosis (RO) water treatment equipment. The second, larger unit is the production area, housing the washer- disinfectors, cleanroom, and despatch area. Soby Joseph said: “The installation and commissioning went smoothly. The RO equipment is a duplex system, which Garth subcontracted to Envirogen. The washer-disinfectors Garth chose are DEKO D32 Excels supplied by Dekomed. The commissioning was by Audere Medical Services.
“Garth was also on hand to ensure everything went well. He arranged a deep clean of the facility, and the validation documents on the machines and the clean room. These were approved by the Trust’s AP(D), Owen Margetts, our AE(D), Mark Walker, and myself.
“After everyone had been trained, we began reprocessing instruments in the temporary unit in the second week of January. We were originally looking at having a larger production unit, but space and budget restricted us. Due to the compact size of the facility, and the limited number of staff who can work in it at any one time, we started a night shift immediately to cope with the demand.”
Meeting increased workload Soby Joseph explained: “We’ve 16 theatres on site, and service a large number of outside clinics and GP surgeries. It’s a credit to the staff that we’ve been able to meet the increasing workload even in these relatively confined conditions. “Our workload has increased, even during this difficult period. Working in the temporary unit, in January we processed 14,799 trays, in February 16,163, March 16,744, in May 17,597, and that’s only part of the production. When we include the offsite work, in May we processed a total of 24,297 trays.
“There’s a plus point with the number of trays that each of the three DEKO washer- disinfectors can accommodate in each cycle.”
122 Health Estate Journal October 2019
was a café’. Some theatre staff had an understanding of the refurbishment programme, but they have had so few issues they didn’t know what we were going through.
“The temporary unit is tight, but we’ve proved it’s doable. It’s a big compliment to SSD and the staff here, who have been incredible. It shows how well the staff have worked in tight conditions.” Beverley Parmenter, the Trust’s Quality manager - Decontamination, added: “We’ve been running a 24-hour service, and it’s all gone well.”
The temporary sterile services facility is equipped with three DEKO D32 Excel washer-disinfector-dryers.
Soby Joseph added: “Garth’s always here if there is an issue. He responds straight away. It’s a great plus point. Even when he was on holiday in Spain, he responded immediately to a query I ’d raised.”
David Lockyer noted: “So far we haven’t had much downtime. Maintenance gets full marks. We’ve had only one delay and one cancellation since the temporary unit went live in January. The maximum has been six hours only, on one machine. “After the cancellation, staff from the theatre involved came here - the theatre lead, a surgeon, and the scrub team. They didn’t know we were working from a ‘shed’. They were impressed we had been able to keep working as well as we have. We didn’t know we were out of the department. Theatres are helping by sending daily lists, so we know what they need and prioritise.”
He added: “Comments we’ve had about the temporary unit include: ‘We thought it
With an engineering perspective, Owen Margetts, the Trust’s senior Estates officer - Systems and Authorised Person - Decontamination AP(D), said: “I was involved from the conception, when we were looking at where we were going, and how we were going to move forward. Trying to find a temporary
decontamination facility was like looking for unicorns.
“The initial validation process of the machines by Audere Medical Services was very thorough. The RO units and the washer-disinfectors have performed as I would have expected of quality machines. SSD was very helpful, very responsive to the few minor issues we had. I fully support Garth’s approach to continuous monitoring to avoid any major faults. “I think the project has gone very, very well. If all schemes ran as smoothly as this one, we wouldn’t have any issues. That’s full credit to Garth and his team.” After the commissioning, SSD contracted engineer Sean Tovey, of Can West Services, to be responsible for the ongoing service and maintenance of the washer-disinfectors. He explained: “I try to be proactive, rather than reactive, to see if the machines are within calibration or drifting. If something is not looking right, it is replaced before it becomes an issue. “Testing is dictated by documentation,
The Class 8 cleanroom.
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