Keeping you safe

Your Safety

To enable us to provide a consistently high standard of care in May 2010 we installed a central decontamination room with two reverse osmosis water units, automatic washer disinfectors, vacuum autoclaves and a special Dacs Handpiece (drill) washer and autoclave. This meets with the Best Practice cross-infection guidance not just the Essential Standard. We also have in place numerous procedures, policies, protocols and audits so that we ensure consistent working methods are followed and we are able to confirm this with the audits we have set in place.

Below are just a few of the procedures and audits that take place:

 

Procedures

Cross infection control procedure

• To ensure patients and staff do not catch or transfer any blood borne viruses we have strict procedures in place that each of our team follow and this is checked and audited with the numerous swab & water tests that are carried out and recorded.
• Autoclaves are located and the decontamination process is carried out away from the surgeries in a dedicated room.
• Any new team member has to undergo induction training before they are allowed to be in a clinical surgery.
• Annual update training is carried out at least once a year.

Disinfecting laboratory work procedure

We only use laboratories that registered with the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulations Agency. Even though the laboratory work is disinfected before it is returned to us, as an extra precaution we also disinfected it before it comes into contact with you.

Fire procedure

Every member of the team is trained in evacuation procedures and regular drills are undertaken. All Fire Health & Safety is adhered too.

Accident & emergency procedure

All our team receive annual update training from a qualified paramedic on emergency life support. We have 5 members of staff with current first aid certificates.

Disposal of waste procedure

We protect our patients and staff by ensuring all our waste is disposed of in accordance to current legislative guidelines.

Regular maintenance of equipment procedure

All our equipment is serviced and/or checked by a qualified person on a regular basis. Our autoclaves, compressors and x-ray equipment are all checked against a recognised written scheme.

Confidentiality, Data Protection and Freedom of information.

We comply with all current legislation in these areas. A new team member, on their first day with the practice, receives training in these areas and then ongoing refresher training during the whole 3 month induction period.

 

Here are a few of the audits we routinely carry out

Autoclave audit

We have print out sheets and data loggers attached to each of our autoclaves to ensure that each cycle of each machine completes the sterilising process correctly.

Washer Disinfectors audit

We have print out sheets and data loggers attached to each of our washers to ensure that each cleaning cycle of each machine completes the task correctly.

Pouching instruments

On each pouched instrument pack we stamp the sterilised date along with the expiry date. Our nurse checks for the expiry dates and reprocesses any pouched instrument packs that are about to expire.

Surgery & work surface testing audit

We regularly audit each surgery to check on cleanliness to ensure the best possible environment for our patients. We use the latest swab testing kits to ensure the cleanest possible environment.

Waterline & water audits

Using a recognised testing kit we take samples of water from all areas of the surgery to ensure the highest water quality for our patients. We have installed two reverse osmosis units to ensure purity of water for our patients and use in our equipment and machines.

Radiation & Mercury level tests

(In addition to a rigorous equipment maintenance programme), our clinical staff are issued with monitoring badges and because they are in the environment everyday any small change will be picked up.

Clinical waste audit

We have in place an audit trail for all our clinical waste. We can even monitor which normal clinical waste is created on which day.

 

If you would like to know more about our procedures, protocols & policies we have in place please mention it to Jenny or Helen at reception and they will arrange for Clare, our practice manager, to contact you.

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