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Setting up a new decontamination facility

A new decontamination facilities unit opened at Southmead Hospital Bristol, in October this year. The Clinical Services Journal provides an insight into the state-of-the-art project.

All hospitals must provide adequate facilities for cleaning, disinfection, sterilisation and storage of equipment and instruments to ensure the care and safety of patients, as well as the Trust staff. The current emphasis is on centralising the decontamination of re-usable medical devices, including flexible scopes and to fulfil this purpose a brand new purposebuilt unit has been created at Southmead Hospital, within the Brunel building.

The challenges facing Southmead Hospital Bristol in designing a new Sterile Services facility included the closure of the old SSD during redevelopment of the new hospital, temporarily relocating the sterile service offsite and then designing and opening a new stateof-the-art facility on the Southmead Hospital site. Added into the mix was the need to build a decontamination unit that meets the needs of north Bristol for the next thirty years, equally to be built within a limited budget, timeframe and with limited space. 

Paul Jenkins, assistant general manager for the facilities directorate at North Bristol NHS Trust, was tasked with meeting this challenge and after over six years of planning, the new ‘decontamination facilities’ unit at Southmead Hospital was opened in October this year. To understand the complexity of the task, it is necessary to go back to 2009 when the first stages of planning began. There was an agreed PFI plan to rebuild Southmead Hospital and close the existing Southmead and Frenchay hospitals, amalgamating all services, including two SSDs onto one site. The Brunel building, situated on the original Southmead Hospital site opened in May 2014 and brought together many of the services of Southmead and Frenchay under one roof for the first time.

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Access the latest issue of Clinical Services Journal on your mobile device together with an archive of back issues.

Download the FREE Clinical Services Journal app from your device's App store

Upcoming Events

Infection Prevention & Control

National Conference Centre, Birmingham
23rd - 24th April 2024

ESGE Days 2024, Symposium – ‘Elevating Endoscopy: Inspiring Progress and Innovation’

Estrel Congress Center (room 15), Berlin, Germany
25th April 2024, 16:30 – 17:30 CEST

National DERS and SMART pump conference

BCEC, Birmingham
29th April 2024

Theatres & Decontamination Conference 2024

Coventry Building Society Arena
16th May 2024

The AfPP Roadshow - Birmingham

Millennium Point, Birmingham
18th May 2024

BAUN Summer Educational Event – Essential Urology Skills

Crowne Plaza, Newcastle Stephenson Quarter
6th June 2024

Access the latest issue of Clinical Services Journal on your mobile device together with an archive of back issues.

Download the FREE Clinical Services Journal app from your device's App store

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