01 October 2011 |
Illume
One of the main drivers behind our refurbishment was the new Department of Health Regulations, known as HTM 01-05. This has challenged the way in which dental practices process and decontaminate instruments and equipment and laid down new guidelines and ‘best practice’.
There is no doubt that HTM 01-05 has created much controversy in the profession with many saying that it is unnecessary and that what practices have done to date is enough. Well, that may be partly true, but it is equally the case that not all practices have followed fully even the previous guidelines.
There can be little doubt that compliance with these new regulations raises the bar for every practice. This practice has always taken hygiene and cross-infection control very seriously and to stay at the forefront we felt it important to adapt our building to be able to follow the new regulations as far as possible.
One of the main planks in the new approach is to remove instrument cleaning and sterilization from the Treatment Rooms. As I have said before, our practice was purpose built, but that was 40 years ago and central sterilization rooms had not even been thought of then – those were the days of inefficient, or non-existent, sterilisers and no gloves!
Our challenge was to create space and we have done this by combining the old x-ray room and a small cloakroom to create a single dedicated space. This has been fitted out with new cabinetry to house the equipment we use to clean and sterilize our instrumentation, and this, along with the new processes and validation required by HTM 01-05, has created a modern compliant practice inside our old shell.
Some photos of the creation of our Sterilisation Room……
