09.04.11
Keeping it clean
Even before it was officially opened by Scotland’s public health minister Shona Robison, the new Hawick Dental Centre had gained itself a reputation for the quality of its decontamination facilities, reports Richard Mackillican
Hawick’s new dental centre opened to the public in April 2009 and has already won praise for the cleanliness of its surgical instruments.
The centre, which was built as part of jointly funded project between NHS Borders and the Scottish Government, contains six surgeries, all of which use the very latest in state-of the-art technology.
Since opening, the centre has also been identified as an ‘exemplar site’ for instrument decontamination, as it deals with all of its decontamination needs on site through a purpose built decontamination facility. This facility is also vital in ensuring the efficiency of decontamination services in the area.
“We have a single ASDU in NHS Borders at Borders General Hospital and the provision of these two large dental centres at Hawick and Coldstream, which sit at the periphery of our area, would have required significant additional equipment as well as creating additional transport and handling issues,” says Warwick Shaw, general manager of premises and capital development at NHS Borders.
The fact that the Hawick centre has its own decontamination unit cuts out a lot of wasteful aspects from the decontamination process.
“Everything is within the management of the service and it makes for a great unit, which is very integrated and self-contained. It also offers a very quick and efficient turnaround of instruments, whilst allowing for excellent audit and governance.”
“This makes the use of a local decontamination facility economical and avoids the need for transport to the Borders General Hospital ASDU,” says David Clouting, clinical director for dental services at NHS Borders. “Transport would also mean additional sets of instruments being necessary to allow for greater turnaround time.”
The convenience and high standard of cleanliness which the centre’s decontamination unit offers comes at a cost.
“ Capital cost was significant,” admits Warwick. “Additionally, the build complexity and time were increased. The operating costs are so far broadly neutral in comparison with extra transport and staffing at ASDU.”
Apart from winning praise for the high standards of decontamination being carried out, the decontamination unit has also provided jobs for some local specialists as local decontamination technicians are used.
The suite is divided into dirty and clean sides with double opening of the washer disinfectors so dirty instruments are fed through in the "dirty room" and retrieved in the ‘clean room’ for autoclaving and then sealing ready for removal to the storage facility for the dental staff's use. Use of technicians means that dental nurse time is not used for this activity so this increases the efficient use of clinical staff.
“All users seem to find this system very beneficial and allow the clinical teams to concentrate on clinical matters. The decontamination technicians have high job satisfaction working with this state of the art facility which ensures the centre is fully compliant with the Glennie Report recommendations.”
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