FEATURE ARTICLES

Beverley Mitton discusses the importance of providing training in decontamination to ensure competency. Ensuring staff understand both how and why tasks are undertaken is vital to ensuring sustainable best practice and patient safety.

Is there a more environmentally acceptable alternative to using single-use surface disinfection wipes that contain plastic? Esther Jansen believes there is a better solution that could help hospitals reduce their impact on the environment.

The EBME Expo took place 28-29th June and proved to be a well-attended and informative event – providing a showcase for thought-provoking insights into biomedical engineering and operating theatre technology. Louise Frampton reports.

Kate Woodhead RGN DMS discusses the findings of a Health and Social Care Select Committee report which has highlighted a crisis in the workforce. She calls on the Government to act on the findings, but also calls for more work to be done to ensure the NHS is a good employer.

Digital technologies have the potential to transform surgery and medical device manufacturers are now evolving to advance this technology-driven revolution. So, how could ‘digital surgery’ lead to reduced variation, improved outcomes, and increased efficiency? Louise Frampton reports.

Few would disagree that busy nurses and clinical staff should be allowed to focus on patient care rather than spending time searching for stock. Materials management specialist Medstor has made it its mission to facilitate this and, with a thirty-year history of working with the NHS and private healthcare providers, has played an important part in streamlining processes in hospitals across the UK and beyond.

Against a backdrop of increasing antimicrobial resistance, Jo Shorthouse discusses the efficacy and application of photodisinfection in the prevention of healthcare-associated infections (HCAIs).

A new report finds that many nurses fear that the COVID-19 pandemic has had a negative impact on the outcomes of those living with a wound. Experts warn that “going back to business as usual” is not an option.

There is a need to tackle variation across Trusts in the adoption of day case surgery. The Rotherham NHS Foundation Trust has made day case surgery its default approach and is on a mission to expand it further.

Mr Simon R Dodds, a consultant general surgeon, at University Hospitals Birmingham, provides an insight into how a successful improvement initiative achieved a sustained 80% reduction in surgical site infection using a care bundle.

Proactive surgical site infection surveillance is crucial to driving improvement, as well as to identifying patients who may be in need of rapid intervention. The development of a remote monitoring platform could have the potential to transform the way hospitals tackle this challenging issue.

In this article, Serious Hazards of Transfusion laboratory incident specialist Nicola Swarbrick and Dr. Jeni Davies focus on a specific area of transfusion science haemovigilance practice – incident investigation – that was the topic of a SHOT webinar held last year.

Mark Hitchman, managing director of Canon Medical Systems UK, highlights the exciting AI innovations in diagnostic imaging and discusses the need for home-grown data to power advancements in the future.

CMR Surgical (CMR) and Milton Keynes University Hospital (MKUH) have announced results from their Versius Robotic Assisted Surgery (RAS) programme, with major impacts reported on recovery timelines, patient outcomes and surgical staff wellbeing. The robotics team behind the programme spoke to CSJ about their findings.

Dr. Kevin Koh offers some valuable guidance on ensuring optimum surgical lighting in operating theatres. He warns that lighting choices can have an impact on patient outcomes and highlights the potential role of in vivo lighting.

A parotidectomy is a major surgical procedure to treat cancer of the parotid gland. Using a case study approach, Emily Humphrey provides an enhanced understanding that will help the scrub practitioner anticipate surgical needs, provide instruments in a timely manner, and improve intraoperative communication between the scrub and the surgical team.

A new report shows that over half of perioperative practitioners have not received any education on the hazards of exposure to surgical smoke plume, while 72% of perioperative practitioners have experienced symptoms associated with exposure to surgical smoke plume. The AfPP are among those calling for action.

Sepsis improvement programmes have received criticism, in recent years, with some claiming that they have ‘resulted in increased hospital antimicrobial consumption’. But should we be targeting sepsis management as ‘the low hanging fruit’ or should we be looking elsewhere for solutions – including better integration of diagnostics? Louise Frampton reports.

Andrew Ready discusses the challenges of reduced laparoscopic vision and provides an insight into a solution that allows rapid and effective cleaning of condensation, tissue debris, blood and other particulate matter from the distal laparoscope lens without scope removal.

iM Med Decontamination Academy recently provided some thought-provoking insights into the importance of leadership, team working, training and communication to ensure safe, high-quality decontamination services.