While hospital Trusts want to save money on chemistries, this must be balanced with ensuring efficacy and patient safety at all times. With cheap chemistries entering the market, is it time for a national register to ensure clarity around performance? Moreover, how could new technologies help optimise decontamination chemistries and provide a tool for improvement? Matthew Peskett, from Ruhof, speaks to CSJabout recent trends and controversies.
Chemistry procurement is being undermined by a lack of information around efficacy, conflicting guidance, as well as dominant commercial interests, argues Matthew Peskett. He is calling for the introduction of a national register of chemistries, to assist hospitals in making informed choices about the efficacy and suitability of the chemistries being used to decontaminate medical devices. He believes there is significant potential to save money on decontamination chemistries, but safety must always come first.
Alternative chemistries
As with all NHS services, sterile services departments and endoscopy decontamination units are facing increasing pressure to reduce costs. At the same time, they have an obligation to deliver a high quality, safe service for both patients and staff. Against this backdrop, there has been heated debate around the fact that hospitals continue to be tied into using proprietary chemistries. While some argue that the current status quo protects the interests of patients, others argue that it protects the commercial interests of equipment manufacturers.
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