The Central Midlands IDSc (Institute of Decontamination Sciences) branch officers decided to organise and host its second 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:
Rob Warburton IDSc Central Midlands Chair opened up the day by welcoming over 60 delegates. The first presentation was given by Mark Stiles from Olympus, who gave an in depth overview about Flexible Endoscopes, this was followed by Ben Carter describing the Endoscope Washer Disinfector EWD cycle.
The next presentation was by Andy Lawton (Managing director TEST Medical Limited) MIDSc, MIHEEM AE(D), this was an interactive session called ‘Ask the AED’, a number of questions were covered relating to Testing & Validation and Roles & Responsibilities, including should Authorised Persons Decontamination undertake the Competent Testing qualifications.
Test Medical Ltd – Andy Lawton AED
The delegates then broke out for an opportunity to network and meet the sponsors including Olympus, AED, Health Edge, H4 Medical, PFE Medical, Isopharm, Dr Weigert and iM-Med.
Olympus – Ben Carter, Mark Stiles and Avaeys Khan
Health Edge – Pete Thompson, Toni Hoare & Helen Edwards
The first session was followed by Ian Mein MSc Microbiology from Isopharm, discussing water quality and total viable count (TVCs) when reprocessing flexible endoscopes. The next presentation was titled ‘Fundamentals of Tracking for Flexible Endoscopes’ and was presented by Pete Thompson from Health Edge.
Isopharm – Beverly Mitton & Ian Mein
After a wonderful lunch the next presentation was given by Ilona Reifenrath a medical technologist working for Dr. Weigert. Ilona gave an in-depth presentation on Chemicals and how they utilised during the flexible endoscopy cleaning and disinfection process.
The next presentation was by Tom Harris the son of Mark Harris who founded H4 Medical in 2010. Tom discussed the Logistics around the safe transportation of Flexible Endoscopes and what systems are generally available for Endoscopy Departments.
H4 Medical – Tom Harris
The penultimate presentation was by Zoe Fayers-Rust from iM-Med. Zoe presented on ‘Fundamentals of Drying Cabinets’ discussing scope drying and summarising with an overview about horizontal and vertical scope storage methods.
iM-Med – Zoe Fayers-Rust and Simon Baker
The last presentation was presented by Sohail Shami PPE Medical and titled ‘What about UV?’ Sohail gave an interesting talk about Ultraviolet Light as a method to High Level Disinfect non-channelled ENT Flexible Scopes.
PFE Medical – Sohail Shami and Rebecca Hartley
A representative from the IDSc Masa Pecek IDSc Business Development Manager was available throughout the day providing additional information to non IDSc members about joining the IDSc and the decontamination career pathway. A 50% discount is available for anyone wishing to join as a member. Please visit the IDSC website for more information – https://www.idsc-uk.co.uk/
The final part of the day concluded with recording the CPD certificates and conduct the prize draw for a free ticket to the IDSC Conference. Congratulations to the winner Jimmy Lawl Senior Decontamination Lead from HTC.
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 is still to be agreed and will be advertised early 2025, more information to follow!
Thank you to our organisers Sharon Fox IDSC Finance Director, Rob Warburton IDSC Marketing Director, Simon Lambert Board & Council Representative, Aggie Strzalkowska Miltko UHB Sterile Services Contracts Manager, Tracy Price ROH Logistics & Sterile Services Manager, Masa Pecek IDSC Business Development Manager and Yuen Yeng Leung UHB Quality Coordinator/Administrator and a big thankyou to our Study day sponsors, without whom this day would not be possible:
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