The connection I made with CUH started 25 years ago when I gave birth to my daughter. She was 8 weeks premature and spent a month in NICU. We spent 6 weeks together in the Rosie before she was ready to come home. The care we received was exceptional and the reason she is here today.
Eight months after giving birth I started work as a technician in sterile services for 4 hours in the evenings. As technicians we prepared, inspected, packed and autoclaved all of the equipment for theatres. This is still the service we provide today but the way we work is very different to the way we worked back then.
We used to wash so many instruments manually in 2 sinks as we only had one machine which was not suitable for all instruments. As you can imagine this was not the most pleasant of experiences.
Lina
I was scared of it all at first and wasn’t sure I’d survive the first two weeks. However I never left the job, and gladly, as I have really grown into the place.
When I started at CUH we had 16 theatres, now we have 37. Technology has made a huge difference to our department and we now have 10 machines to do the job of cleaning. The equipment will arrive contaminated in the washroom, they will be checked in and disassembled here, then they are put through a washer disinfector. The automated machines will clean and disinfect the instrument then we will inspect them thoroughly in a clean room. We check for visible matter on the instruments and check its functionality to ensure it will work as expected in clinical practice. Once satisfied these will be packed according to the checklist. Every set has a list that needs to be followed after which they will be packed in a sterilising wrap. The instruments then go into an autoclave for sterilisation. The steam for the autoclave comes from the boiler house which is pressurised at 2.1bar and piped through to the machines. The total pressure within the autoclave is 2.1bars, sterilising the instruments at 134 - 137° centigrade. The packaged instrument sets are stored in the sterile store until ready to be delivered. We process equipment for 220 organisations in Cambridgeshire, which includes all the departments at CUH, as well as other hospitals and GP surgeries. We reprocess around half a million instruments a month.
We also reprocess endoscopes for the endoscopy unit. This process is slightly different than the other equipment we process, since endoscopes are flexi-scopes very delicate and heat sensitive hence the process is different. They are washed and disinfected and kept in a dryer with medical air passing through them. Monthly we reprocess around 3,700 scopes.
After many years of hands-on experience, I am now the training coordinator for the department and I really enjoy teaching what I know and assisting staff. The opportunity to mentor and assist new people is very fulfilling. I always teach new team members the importance of our role and our indirect contact with patients. They see this when they observe surgeries for themselves and can see the different types of equipment being used. For new staff this visit puts everything they do in perspective. Every piece of equipment will take a minimum of 4-6 hours to go through the whole process before it can be used again for the next patient. The importance of this department may not always be overly recognised, however the methodological system we work to ensures we can deliver instruments at a fast pace and high standards to keep the hospital operations running and to work alongside the rest of the trust to continue saving lives.