search.noResults

search.searching

saml.title
dataCollection.invalidEmail
note.createNoteMessage

search.noResults

search.searching

orderForm.title

orderForm.productCode
orderForm.description
orderForm.quantity
orderForm.itemPrice
orderForm.price
orderForm.totalPrice
orderForm.deliveryDetails.billingAddress
orderForm.deliveryDetails.deliveryAddress
orderForm.noItems
DAS 2024 Review


Challenging questions for the decontamination sector


Challenging questions in decontamination, were high on the agenda at DAS 2024, including: ‘how can we safeguard the next generation of competent decontamination staff?’ Louise Frampton provides an overview of some of the key highlights.


Taking place at the National Conference Centre in Birmingham, the DAS 2024 event brought together leading experts in the decontamination and sterilisation sector, to discuss hot topics around education, leadership, the future of the profession, sustainability, innovation, and best practice. The first session featured a presentation by


Helen Campbell, Director of Education at the Institute of Decontamination Sciences, who discussed: ‘The forgotten essential service – the key to safeguarding the next generation of competent decontamination staff.’ Helen opened the session by highlighting the importance of “uniting the industry” and “being an advocate for the patient”. Her presentation emphasised that staff need to be empowered, have access to proper training and should be given the recognition they deserve for the important role they have to play in keeping patients safe. “We need to reduce risk, increase career


pathways, and keep people within the organisation,” commented Helen.


HSSIB report She asked the audience if they were aware of the Health Services Safety Investigations Body (HSSIB) investigation into decontamination of surgical instruments. A show of hands revealed that only 20% of the audience had heard of the report. She urged them to read this important document and highlighted some key findings. The HSSIB investigation outlined the key opportunities to learn from an incident in which a contaminated medical device was used on a patient in theatre. One of the key findings was a was ‘a lack of training and competency’ among staff working in decontamination. The investigation also found that incident reporting structure tends to be poor and there should be consistency and transparency with national trends. The report further highlighted the need to review instrument management and how this could reduce risk of error. The way forward is to “raise the organisation’s


awareness of our roles”, Helen asserted. She added that patient safety issues also need to be understood within the context of increasing


demands being placed on sterile services. “Departments process millions of instruments per year and there is increased pressure to get sets through quickly,” she commented. She pointed out that the number of instruments being processed each year is significantly increasing – but the workforce is not being increased to meet this rising demand. Staff are simply being asked to ‘work faster’. It is important to realise that failures in SSDs can lead to hospital closures. If the SSD goes down due to faulty equipment, for example, theatres cannot operate. Helen pointed out that when such events occur, the hospital’s board becomes highly motivated to take an interest in the SSD and suddenly funds for new equipment materialises. There should be better awareness and a higher profile for the critical role of decontamination, instead of this reactive response. Failures in decontamination compromise patient safety and any contamination left on instruments has the potential to lead to infections – whether it is protein, viruses or bacteria. There is a lack of data on how many patients are exposed to blood borne viruses (BBV) from contaminated instruments. However, a show of hands among the audience on ‘who had experienced a dirty instrument being supplied to theatre in the past year’ suggested that dirty instruments entering theatres for use on patients is a problem experienced by many hospitals. “If you are reprocessing between 30,000 and 200,000 sets per year, something will get through that is dirty,” she asserted.


Linking failures to infections But how do we know if a failure in the SSD has led to an infection? Often, the infection may only become apparent after the patient has left the hospital, it may go unreported if they have a stomach upset, for example, and the patient may attribute this to medication or the side


April 2024 I www.clinicalservicesjournal.com 65





Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72  |  Page 73  |  Page 74  |  Page 75  |  Page 76  |  Page 77  |  Page 78  |  Page 79  |  Page 80  |  Page 81  |  Page 82  |  Page 83  |  Page 84  |  Page 85  |  Page 86  |  Page 87  |  Page 88