London’s Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust has created a back-up sterile services department (SSD) to provide cover/security for potential breakdowns within its current facilities.
While the current St Thomas’ SSD facility could meet existing demand, it was decided that additional support would come from a new facility at Guy’s Hospital, with the current St Thomas’ sterile services facility being refurbished. The ultimate aim was to share sterile services between both hospitals, providing increased capacity, as well as the potential to serve other local hospitals.
As an existing ‘proven’ supplier to the Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, EWS (UK) was selected to design, install, and commission, the water purification package. For the new Guy’s Hospital SSD unit, it supplied a duplex reverse osmosis (RO) system, which automatically operates in duty standby mode, and includes a 1,000 litre treated water storage tank installed to buffer the water supply to the washer-disinfectors and clean steam generators. The duplex design also caters for any scheduled service. An EWS EndoTherm Mini is now feeding the unit’s Getinge Lancer endoscope reprocessors.
Neville Fowler, technical manager at Guy’s and St Thomas’ Hospital, said: “Within two years it will pay for itself, thanks to the savings on chemicals, and the reduction in staffing costs, due to its automatic self sanitisation.”
Meanwhile, at St Thomas’ Hospital, where the company is the existing water purification supplier, EWS (UK) refurbished the existing hot set RO system, and created a complete duplex design, again installing an EndoTherm Mini, to feed the endoscope reprocessors within the theatres department. Neville Fowler said: “What I like about the EndoTherm Minis is that we don’t have to touch them. They require minimal attention. We see the TVC results and they are always zero”.
The new SSD facilities help maximise staff productivity by combining wash areas; there are now three separate workflows (all ‘contaminated’ areas):
• A main instrument wash area.
• An endoscopy wash area.
• A Medical Disinfection Unit area.
CFES won the contract to build the new Guy’s Hospital facility and undertake the refurbishment at St Thomas’, completing both projects on time and on budget. Other equipment purchased by the Trust included Belimed washer-disinfectors and porous load sterilisers, and Getinge Lancer endoscope reprocessors.
The newly developed sites now process 125,000 trays/year, and, with the UK’s largest dental school, two million dental instruments. Alongside also now undertaking all the SSD work for Great Ormond Street Hospital, the Trust is able to consider additional external work for other hospitals in the area.
