Safe storage and transport of endoscopes

Patient safety and efficiency are at the forefront of Gloucestershire Royal Hospital’s endoscopy services and the Trust needed a solution to ensure the integrity of its reprocessed scopes, as well as traceability. The department wanted to ensure the safe, aseptic storage of its endoscopes, but also needed to maximise capacity and space.

Earlier vacuum packing systems, used by the hospital, had encountered supply issues – obtaining the gas and the bags from the supplier had proven challenging. After conducting various trials, another system had been purchased, but this also took around 15-minutes for the process to be completed and there were additional considerations relating to the injection of chemicals, which the hospital wanted to eliminate. To address these issues, the hospital opted for the EndoPax endoscope packing system, from iM Med, enabling the busy department to extend the storage time for its decontaminated scopes, while ensuring the safety of patients at all times. 

“The EndoPax is quick, easy and extends the life of the scope,” commented Emma Grange, assistant endoscopy practitioner at Gloucestershire Royal Hospital. “It eases the pressure on the department as the gas-packed scopes have 30-days aseptic storage and we have more scopes than drying cabinet space. We are mainly using EndoPax for non-auxiliary scopes, which go out of the department,” she explained.