The third annual health check of the NHS by the Healthcare Commission has shown a dramatic fall in the percentage of organisations who meet core standards on decontamination of reusable medical devices. Last year 84.8% of organisations reached satisfactory standards of instrument decontamination - this year saw a 7% drop to only 77.3%.
Diane Gilmour, who leads on decontamination issues for the Association for Perioperative Practice (AfPP) commented: "The high levels of unsatisfactory instrument decontamination are extremely concerning. Of all the core standards examined by the Healthcare Commission this is by some way the poorest performance. Failure to reach these standards puts patients at risk and if this downward spiral continues the repercussions for patient care could be severe."
She added: "Our members are telling us that some of the outsourced centres are performing poorly compared with in-house facilities. Instruments are being returned dirty or in the wrong sets leading to cancelled operations and delayed procedures.”
