The Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust’s vision for a new standalone decontamination centre in Enfield to bring together such services from its three hospitals – some housed in ageing and cramped facilities – under one roof in one modern, well-equipped ‘supercentre’, was successfully realised last year thanks to a partnership with CFES as main contractor, and specialist equipment supplier, Getinge. Louise Frampton, editor of HEJ’s sister publication, The Clinical Services Journal, reports on the impressive new £14 m facility.
The Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust has built a new 32,000 ft2 decontamination supercentre, capable of reprocessing 20 million instruments and 130,000 endoscopes. The £14 m state-of-the-art facility has improved decontamination services, by replacing ageing sterile services and endoscopy reprocessing departments across three hospital sites. At the same time, the supercentre is opening up new sources of revenue for the Trust, by providing decontamination for other hospitals – allowing additional funds to be reinvested back into NHS services.
The existing facilities were reaching the end of their life, and investment was required to maintain a compliant service across the Trust’s three main complexes – the Barnet, Chase Farm, and Royal Free hospitals.
“The average washer-disinfector has a life expectancy of seven years, while an autoclave has an average life span of 10 years. At Barnet, the equipment had far exceeded this, and the department was having to use a collection of portable cabins. The units at Chase Farm and the Royal Free faced similar challenges, with staff working in cramped conditions,” explained general manager, Mark Sibbons.
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