Decontamination: exploring the challenges

The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust and University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust are jointly announcing an educational event, DECON UK 2022, which will help to drive improvement and promote best practice in decontamination services. Taking place at the Molineux Stadium, Wolverhampton (6 April 2022), the conference is free to healthcare professionals and is expected to host over 100 delegates from various fields within the decontamination sector. 

As the NHS strives to tackle the backlog of surgery, pressure is set to increase on the decontamination sector to deliver increased capacity, while also ensuring continued safe services. Efficiency will be key – not  just because of the demands that elective recovery will place on sterile services, but also due to the sustainability agenda. There is an increasing shift towards reusable solutions, as Trusts seek to tackle the environmental impact of waste in the NHS, and this will inevitably add to the demands being placed on the decontamination sector.  

The pandemic has heightened our focus on infection prevention and the decontamination of instruments, medical devices and the environment form a  vital part of keeping patients safe – with the goal of eliminating threats from new pathogens and old. Airborne infection has also been catapulted into the spotlight by COVID-19 and there is an increasing focus on ventilation – a scientific area that is now being explored in the context of aerosol generation from healthcare processes, as well as airborne transmission risks from patients and staff.