Institute uniquely placed to provide hospital sterilisation experts

The Institute has its own register of such personnel that Trust CEOs and other Board / management personnel can call upon for independent auditing, as well as for review and witness documentation on validation of such activities.

(AE(D) is the new designation for those previously known as Authorised Persons (Sterilisers) (AP (S)). The change follows the recent publication of the Department of Health’s (DH) Health Technical Memoranda HTM00 and HTM01-01 (and their equivalent guidance in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland). The memoranda introduced a revised management structure for former AP (S) personnel. HTM01-01 defines an AE(D) as “a person designated by healthcare executive management to provide independent auditing and advice on washer-disinfectors, sterilisers and sterilisation and to review and witness documentation on validation of the activity”.

IHEEM has hosted a voluntary register of about 36 AP(S) since 1996, run under delegated DH authority. The new Authorising Engineer role established in HTM00, Policy and Principles, has meant some changes to the Register. In particular, from July 2008 all AP(S) registered with IHEEM were migrated to the new IHEEM AE(D) Voluntary Register. HTM01-01(Decontamination) Part A (and its equivalent guidance) recommends that only suitably qualified AE(D)s are used, and that a register is maintained by IHEEM. A list of all registered AE(D)s can be found on the Institute’s website, at: www.iheem.org.uk/authorising/ decontamination.php

John Long, IHEEM chief executive; said: “The Institute is proud to have the Department of Health’s continuing support for its voluntary register scheme. The recent Darzi report re-emphasised the importance of high quality care for all, including the provision of safe and infection-free environments. Such environments can only be maintained by a strong system of controls and checks overseen by specialists and engineers in infection control and decontamination procedures. The IHEEM Voluntary Register of Authorising Engineers (Decontamination) provides a robust oversight of registered specialist practitioners working in this field.”