The Central Midlands IDSc (Institute of Decontamination Sciences) branch officers decided to organise and host a free, CPD backed decontamination study day at: The Barns Hotel, Cannock, Staffordshire, to support both IDSc students and non-members who have an interest in decontamination, so here’s what happened:
The day was packed, starting with Sharon Fox MBA MIDSc (Chtd) Head of Decontamination Central Endoscopy Decontamination Units from Queen Elizabeth’s University Hospital, who gave an overview of the decontamination career pathway, followed by Andy Lawton (Managing director TEST Medical Limited) MIDSc, MIHEEM AE(D) who talked about the requirements of testing and validation along with general overview regarding the HTM standards.
Ian Mein MSc Microbiology from Isopharm followed by discussing how water is treated and the various challenges faced by decontamination departments. The study day was further honoured to have a guest speaker from Hamburg: Ilona Reitenrath a medical technologist working for Dr. Weigert. Ilona gave an in-depth presentation about different cleaning chemistries and the challenges faced with stainless steel and chlorites.
After a wonderful lunch the next presentation was given by Daniel Coole the Managing Director of Surgical Holdings, Daniel explained how to identify the different surgical instrument characteristics, how to function test them and the importance about repairing instruments to support sustainability.
The penultimate presentation was by Tom Harris the son of Mark Harris who founded H4 Medical in 2010. Tom discussed in depth the pro’s and con’s regarding containers and tray wraps and finished by discussing different wraps and pouches.
The last presentation was a detailed overview about ‘Good Manufacturing Practice’ GMP from a commercial manufacturer perspective was delivered by Darby Booth Managing Director of Warwick Sasco ltd.
A representative from the IDSc Masa Pecek Administration Manager was available throughout the day providing additional information to non IDSc members about joining the IDSc and the decontamination career pathway.
Today’s objective was to provide the necessary information to support and meet the decontamination technician technical certificate elements, which was clearly achieved. The next branch training day will focus on around Endoscopy and will be advertised early 2024, more information to follow!
Please look at some of the pictures taken today, kindly provided by Aggie Strzalkowska Miltko.
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