Endoscope reprocessing
expects you to know much more of the details,” she explained.
Endoscopy Technical Certificate in Decontamination IDSc is now launching a qualification that is going to be a level three qualification – the Endoscopy Technical Certificate in Decontamination. At present, this is with SQA (the Scottish awarding body) to be ‘levelled’. “This is the same route we went with the
Technical Certificate for Sterile Services Departments (SSDs) and that was levelled at a level six in Scotland, which is a level three in England, Wales and Northern Ireland,” Helen continued. She added that the qualification is recognised within Europe as a level four qualification. It will be an online qualification with an exam at the end. She revealed the key modules for the first time at the study day. These included: l History of the development of flexible endoscope flexible endoscopes.
l Receiving and manual cleaning of endoscopes.
l Automated cleaning and disinfection of endoscopes.
l Sterilisation of endoscopes. l Storage of endoscopes. l Microbiology.
Decontamination challenges Helen went on to discuss the decontamination challenges around the channels within
It’s a concern that we are asking people to process scopes on their own, after just three days, and they are being taught how to do them by somebody who hasn’t got a levelled qualification. Helen Campbell, IDSc.
endoscopes. We need to consider: how are we going to clean it and what are the next advancements in endoscopy decontamination that we need to be aware of? “You can already have your gallbladder
removed through an endoscopic procedure. There are going to be more and more procedures that happen through endoscopes. But are all endoscopes processed in the same way? We’ve already talked about nasendoscopes and the majority of you are using a wiping method. But where are the endoscopes processed? Are they processed in a centralised area? Do any of you have satellite sites?” She gave the example of a Trust with five
satellite sites – when a washer goes down at one of the satellite sites, the scopes have to go back to the main hospital for processing. “It makes you think about where endoscope procedures happen and what happens to the instruments. We all use single-use sterile instruments for biopsies, but a biopsy is taken and then pulled through the scope channel. So, are we contaminating the inside of the channel? Do staff need to be aware of this? Are staff aware of biofilms?” she continued.
She also questioned whether people know
how many channels there are in the scope, highlighting the findings of the Hine report, after the recall of over 3000 patients due to reprocessing errors. “Does it happen now? Yes, it does! I know
of hospitals that have cleaned loan scopes or scopes that have changed, and after a couple of days, somebody says, ‘Oh, there’s an extra channel here that hasn’t been cleaned between patients’,” she observed. She went on to ask the audience: “Would you
be happy to have an endoscope procedure at your department with your staff cleaning the endoscope?” The audience were unanimous in saying they would. “What if you are on holiday and have a
problem, so you have to have an endoscopic procedure elsewhere, within the UK. Would you be happy to have a procedure not knowing how those scopes are cleaned?” Not a single hand went up. “So, what is this telling you?” asked Helen. “Should we have everyone doing everything the same way, following IFUs?” Helen ended her session by highlighting a wide
range of reprocessing scenarios and challenges that technicians will need to fully understand, as well as PPE and health and safety. “Personally, I would want the person who
cleaned the endoscope, that was going to be used on me, to have a levelled qualification,” she concluded.
Achieving the gold standard in ENT scope sterilisation Kevin Owens, Deputy Decontamination Manager from Beaumont Hospital, gave an insight into an improvement project in ENT scope sterilisation. Decontamination in ENT was previously undertaken by nursing staff. In 2018, an internal restructure transferred responsibility to the Decontamination Service. “We had very little time to change anything and we were still working with what we had, when the HIQA carried out an unannounced inspection of the ENT department and the decontamination facilities, in April 2019,” Kevin explained. (The HIQA is an independent authority that exists to improve health and social care services for the people of Ireland.) The HIQA was complimentary about the
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