How clean are your single use instruments?

The main reason for the sudden demand for single use instruments was the reports of a potential risk of spreading creutzfeldt-jakob disease (CJD) from patient to patient through using the same set of surgical instruments that may be carrying residual protein and the virtually impossible to destroy rogue prion. The Government declared that all surgical instruments used on tonsillectomies should be destroyed and replaced with single use disposable sets. It was from this course of action that many other single use procedure packs started to be introduced over the following years.

As a result of this I was approached by one of the instrument manufacturers to work with them promoting single use instruments. Through sheer luck, one of my customers was asked if he knew of anyone that could supply disposable surgical instruments. The company in question had a long history of supplying various medical goods. At the time of our first meeting they had never even sold one pair of scissors. By the time they were up and running we had designed literature and a range of products that lifted them way above what was available in the market. This approach made them one of the leaders in single use supply. Eventually other suppliers raised their standards and things became more competitive, right up to the point of price cutting. Whereas before you could present the products to the buying teams and know that many would tell you that they were a better quality than the ones they bought as reusable, it started to tail off and price became the major purchasing factor over quality.  

The main production area for the instrument manufacturers is the town of Sialkot in Pakistan. It is here that extremely high quality instruments are produced and supplied to companies all over the world and marketed under well know brand names. It is also here that single use instruments are produced. Both types of instruments are produced by people that have had their skills handed down between many generations and both types of instruments need many specialised processes to turn a piece of steel in to an instrument. Now that the prices are dominating the sales market the high quality reusable instrument manufacturers are able to absorb any decreases in profits and still produce beautiful items which the lower end of the single use markets cannot. The manufacturer I worked with accepted the fact that I would say to potential customers that there is no excuse for poor quality single use and he kept to it.