Having celebrated 40 years of innovation in the decontamination sector, Wassenburg is now unveiling exciting plans for 2025, with major investment in the UK market and an expanding portfolio of pioneering technologies.
Since Gerrit Wassenburg invented the first automated endoscope reprocessors, in 1984, the company has witnessed significant expansion across 35 countries. In 2013, the company’s growth was boosted by significant investment from the Hoya Group, a global player which includes internationally renowned endoscopy brands, such as the Pentax Lifecare Division.
Today, Wassenburg continues to experience strong growth in the UK and Europe, as well as increasing its market share across some of the largest global markets – including the US.
Expansion in the UK
To meet increasing UK demand for its portfolio of decontamination technologies (which spans the entire endoscope reprocessing cycle) the company is expanding its capacity further with investment in a much larger facility, based in Sheffield.
“We are investing significantly in the UK and are expanding our capacity from 8,000 sq ft to 10,500 sq ft at our UK headquarters. We have set up a state-of-the-art showroom demonstrating ‘clean and dirty’ segregation for automated endoscope reprocessors. It closely represents a real-life decontamination department, so decontamination staff can touch and see our pioneering technologies first-hand.
This will help decontamination departments to visualise how we can provide a 360-degree solution – from endoscope pre-cleaning and reprocessing, through to drying, storage and transport. It is a truly end-to-end solution,” comments Rakesh Javer, Managing Director, Wassenburg UK.
“With its significantly increased footprint, this facility will benefit from a technologically advanced supply chain department, to ensure the best possible experience for customers. The increased capacity will speed up delivery times across the UK’s network of hospitals, with more space for stockholding, while the extra space will also enable the growth of our service operations, and provide room for comfortable training facilities. This will allow us to host large-scale educational events and study days for decontamination professionals, as well as investing in training and development of Wassenburg colleagues.”
Investing in training for the sector
The organisation understands that human factors play a crucial role in the endoscope reprocessing process and training is a vital part of ensuring patient safety, as well as maximising the lifespan of its machines. Wassenburg’s technologies are already renowned for their reliable, long service, but ensuring user knowledge and competency helps to further reduce downtime.
Certified training courses are based on recommendations from The Medicines and Healthcare Regulatory Authority (MHRA), British Society of Gastroenterology (BSG) and HTM 01- 06. This is in addition to Wassenburg’s End User Portal which offers e-learning modules for users of its washer-disinfector and drying cabinet technologies.
In April 2024, Wassenburg hosted a successful study day, which attracted top speakers – including director-level experts from the Institute of Decontamination Sciences. The new training facility will enable the company to offer an expanded educational programme in 2025 – aimed at driving improvement and sharing best practice across the decontamination sector.
Expanding innovation
At the heart of the company’s strategy is a commitment to investment in innovation, and the portfolio has been rapidly expanding both through R&D and strategic partnerships
“One of the stars of our portfolio is the WD440 PT Pass Through endoscope washer-disinfector,” comments Rakesh.
To ensure complete cleaning and disinfection of endoscopes, the WD440 PT contains a unique basin and helical tube system. Fluid flow in the helical tube lifts the distal end from the wall, allowing fluid to contact it everywhere. Proven Wassenburg individual channel pump and connection technology is the core of the system. Each endoscope channel is reprocessed and controlled individually on connection, flow, pressure and blockage.
Process Manager works seamlessly with the WD440 PT to ensure compliance with regulations and provides valuable insights into day-to-day operations, helping to improve reliability and availability of the endoscopes.
“This washer disinfector has proven so popular that some Trusts are now on their third generation of the machine. Not only are they confident in the machines, but they also trust Wassenburg to provide a high level of customer experience and after sales support,” Rakesh explains
You have to understand an endoscope to fully understand how to decontaminate it. Ultimately, these are challenging instruments. We have developed our automated endoscope reprocessing machines from a position of having a detailed understanding of endoscopes – our close relationships with the world’s best known endoscope manufacturers means we are uniquely placed,” he continues.
Wassenburg has a philosophy of ‘a single chamber per scope’ – its dual chamber machines ensure efficiency but also prevent the risk of cross-contamination between scopes, by separating individual scopes.
“Our mantra is ‘a safe endoscope for every patient’,” Rakesh explains.
In 2021, Wassenburg acquired US company, Custom Ultrasonics, which designs, manufactures and distributes automated systems to clean and high-level disinfect complex devices – including multi-channelled flexible endoscopes. Through this acquisition, Wassenburg has become even more of a global player in the endoscopy reprocessing market. A truly exciting development which helps us ensure even more safe endoscopes.
Also now available through Wassenburg, is the PENTAX Medical PlasmaTYPHOON+, PENTAX Medical AquaTYPHOON and PlasmaBAG ECO
Pre-cleaning of endoscope channels is an essential part of the reprocessing process. However, manual cleaning is subject to human error, presents health and safety risks to decontamination staff, and requires larger volumes of water. AquaTYPHOON enables automated, brushless pre-cleaning of all endoscope channels in only 2 to 7 minutes and is fully compatible with endoscopes from all major manufacturers.
The automated AquaTYPHOON solution eliminates waste generation (associated with the use of brushes, syringes, detergent, etc), as well as reducing water consumption – resulting in significantly lower costs and increased sustainability, when compared to manual pre-cleaning
Thorough drying of the endoscope is also crucial to avoid proliferation of microorganisms due to remaining humidity. In addition, appropriate endoscope storage is necessary to avoid re-contamination. PlasmaTYPHOON+ provides complete drying of the channels in only a few minutes and is combined with individual storage of the endoscope in the PlasmaBAG ECO. This maintains the disinfected state of the endoscope for up to 31 days.
Wassenburg has also partnered with EMS Healthcare to provide mobile decontamination units to support hospitals across the UK to maintain their endoscope reprocessing throughput during refurbishments and equipment upgrades.
In 2024, EMS Healthcare and Wassenburg Medical deployed a mobile decontamination unit to North Manchester General Hospital, helping to increase reprocessing capacity by up to 195 scopes per 12 hours each day.
“Through these solutions, we are becoming a ‘one-stop-shop’ to meet hospital’s complete decontamination needs,” Rakesh explains.
The future of innovation
The company’s R&D team are also continuously looking at ways to improve Wassenburg’s technologies. This means listening closely to the decontamination sector to ensure the best possible user experience – whether it is improving how users put the endoscope into the chamber, or how they interact with the software interface.
In addition, the R&D team constantly looks for ways to improve the materials of the machines. This has resulted in some of the most durable washer disinfectors in the healthcare sector – with some models still in use in hospitals after 18 years! The company continues to provide service support for hospitals with legacy machines.
“Through our drive for continuous advancement, our washer disinfectors are now achieving some of the fastest cycle times on the market, but we are also looking at what the next generation of washer disinfectors could look like,” says Rakesh.
AI will play an increasing role in the future – we are investing in this field and have some exciting developments in the pipeline. Going forward there is increasing demand for technologies that are smarter and create efficiencies for healthcare providers.
“When I started in this industry, 20 years ago, it was all about compliance. Today, compliance is still important, but it is also about: ‘how can we make it better for the end user?’ and ‘how can we make it better for the patient?’
“Ultimately, having a great product is just part of the story; how you support the end user is just as important. The combination of responsive after sales services, innovative finance solutions, interim facilities during installations, and the provision of education, training and development for end users, provides a complete solution.”
Wassenburg Ltd
Unit 4 Ignite
Magna Way
Rotherham
S60 1FD
T: +44 (0)114 245 4282
F: +44 (0)114 232 8234
sales@wassenburgmedical.co.uk
www.wassenburgmedical.co.uk
