Decontamination
it? These are the questions that we should be asking on that day,” she continued. Claire Jones-Manning acknowledged that communication between theatres and sterile services can be poor at many Trusts: “We are here, today, to ask you for your help. We would like to make it better. So, how do we increase the communication?” Deleges were provided with a QR code
linking to four questions which they were asked to respond to. She explained that the information shared would help facilitate better understanding of exactly where the challenges lie. These questions included: 1. Can decontamination services support theatre productivity, and if so, how can we streamline these processes to reduce turnaround times and ensure the availability of sterile instruments without compromising patient safety?
2. Can improvements in decontamination services and enhanced collaborative working help decrease patient waiting times, and how can these improvements align with the government’s strategy for addressing healthcare backlogs?
3. What improvements can be made in collaborative working between external sterilisation companies and the NHS to enhance efficiency, ensure higher standards of infection control, and reduce operational delays.
4. With the rapid pace of new innovations in healthcare, what do you think are the biggest challenges currently facing decontamination in the NHS, especially when it comes to balancing current demand, capacity and existing infrastructure?
Becky Peach outlined a scenario where theatres are told they need to add six hips to a list instead of four. They may need to fast track kit or bring in loan kit. However, this may not be communicated to sterile services. Yet it means that they will have more sets to process. If sterile services staff have extra kit they don’t know about in advance, they may find they have to work late, at the end of their day, which impacts unfairly on staff work/life balance. “Are we feeding into each other? Are we
appreciating each other’s challenges?” she commented. “Storage is another big issue within the theatre areas,” she pointed out, referencing the earlier Mentimeter survey. “It’s about education,” she asserted. They spoke to some of the theatre teams as part of an engagement exercise and asked them questions such as: what does sterilisation mean to you? What is important to you in your instrument tray? Have you visited sterile
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l Environmental factors l Human error
services? Have sterile services visited your theatre? If you could say one thing to sterile services, what would it be? She commented that there are also issues
around missing instruments, so they have been speaking to the teams and asking them: are you actually checking your trays? Are you doing your counts? “We’ve reached the conclusion that we need
to start audits; we know that some of the tray lists are not completed properly. Instruments are missing but we’ve not had the feedback from the SSD to say, ‘this tray has come back incomplete’. This is poor communication. It is about engagement - we’re all here for the patient and we want the same outcome.” She added that sterile services staff are not
always given the opportunity to visit the theatres, and there is also a desire among the theatre staff to see what goes on in sterile services. “Hospital staff sometimes think, ‘oh it’s just a quick process; we can just wash it; we can just get it through,’ and fail to realise the impact on others. As I said before, it’s about communicating between both teams. There is no point in me sitting on scheduling, on a Thursday, and saying ‘yes, we can deliver this’, when we know for a fact that we haven’t got those instrument trays and that sterile services may not have the staffing.” Becky Peach outlined some of the key
challenges for theatres, including: l High turnover of surgical instruments l High volume of workload l Budget restraints l Use of complex instruments l Tight schedules l Poor communication l Resource limitations
The challenges for sterile services include: l Complex instruments l Time restraints l High volume l Poor communication l Regulatory demands
Becky Peach pointed out that new innovations are increasingly being acquired in theatres, which feature complex instruments – such as those used in robotic surgery. While these advances are exciting from a theatre’s perspective, is enough consideration given as to how these will impact sterile services, when they are acquired? Do they have the facilities, equipment and capacity to reprocess these complex instruments? She also acknowledged that theatre staff may have unrealistic expectations on the turnaround times that are achievable, when reprocessing complex instruments. She added that theatres are increasingly looking at moving to reusable alternatives in a drive to improve sustainability. However, what is the impact on sterile services and have they been involved in any discussions on how to manage this? “From my point of view, it’s about the education with the theatre teams. We need more collaborative work with decontamination services. This doesn’t have to be in a heavy educational way, as everyone is really busy. So, what can we do that’s snappy and really quick – some quick wins? What are some good teaching points for the theatre team that are relevant to them? Ultimately, it’s about thinking outside the box and making sure the theatre team are aware of what goes on in sterile services, and sterile services are aware of what actually goes on in theatre,” she concluded.
About the CSC
The CSC was founded in 1960 by a small group of enthusiastic individuals who were either working in sterile services departments or were attempting to solve the many problems associated with developing rapid, safe methods for decontaminating items in bulk. The Club continues to flourish, and its
strength has evolved through its multi- disciplinary membership, which includes: l Sterile service managers l Decontamination leads l Medical & non-medical microbiologists l Infection prevention and control nurses l Authorising engineers (decontamination)
The next event is the Autumn Study Day 2025, which takes place on 13 October 2025, at the Ramada Plaza, Wrexham. For further details, visit the events section at:
https://centralsterilisingclub.org
CSJ
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