Decontamination in primary care dental practices - Gov.uk

Decontamination: Health Technical Memorandum 01-05 – Decontamination in primary care dental practices (2013 edition)developed protocols and procedures inplace to prevent contamination of theseinstruments by ensuring that thoserequired for a particular patient areremoved from their protected environmentbefore treatment commences. Thiseliminates the need to open cupboarddoors or drawers during patient treatment.If an instrument does need to be retrievedfrom a cupboard or drawer duringtreatment, the practice should haveprotocols in place to preventcontamination and to ensure that staffhands are clean and that new gloves aredonned before handling unwrappedsterilized instruments. Regard allinstruments set out for each patient ascontaminated after the treatment whetheror not they have been used.Instruments that are kept unwrapped should bereprocessed at the end of the working day,regardless of whether they have been used.Alternatively, instruments can be reprocessed atthe beginning of the next working day.(iii) Unwrapped instruments in a non-clinicalarea: maximum storage 1 week.Non-clinical area in this context isdesignated as a clinical area not in currentuse or in a clean area of a separatedecontamination room. Instruments shouldstill be stored as follows:• dry; and• protected from contamination, forexample in mini-racks placed incupboards, or in covered drawer inserts.Instruments should not be placed on openwork surfaces.m. Develop a quality system approach so that thestorage of wrapped instruments does not exceedone year.n. Equipment used to decontaminate dentalinstruments should be fit for purpose andvalidated. This means that the device should becommissioned, maintained and periodicallytested by a Competent Person(Decontamination) or service engineer, thatrecords of maintenance should be kept and thatcorrect functioning should be monitored andrecorded (see Section 3).Notep. The appropriate and controlled disposal ofwaste is a key aspect of risk control in localdental practices (see Section 3).q. A documented training protocol should be inoperation with individual training records for allstaff engaged in decontamination (see Section 3for details).r. The practice should carry out an assessment ofthe changes needed to move from compliancewith essential quality requirements tocompliance with best practice requirements.s. Staff involved in decontamination shoulddemonstrate current immunisation for hepatitisB and, subject to local policy, tetanus. Staffmust be informed of the benefits (for exampleprotection against serious illness, protectionagainst spreading illness) and drawbacks (forexample reactions to the vaccine) of vaccination.Vaccination is considered additional to, and not asubstitute for, other control measures.t. The effective cleaning of handpieces inaccordance with manufacturers’ guidance.Dedicated cleaning equipment is availableand may be of value. However, validationin this area is difficult, and the advice ofmanufacturers/suppliers should be sought.u. Separate wash-hand basins for use by staffconducting decontamination should beprovided.v. Washing and rinsing of instruments can beachieved by:• Two dedicated sinks with a separate orshared water supply.• One sink with a removable bowl, whichcan be contained within the sink that canaccommodate the instruments for rinsing.This is the least preferred option as itrequires lifting and moving bowls ofcontaminated water with associatedspillage risks. The practice should haveclear processes and protocols in place toensure that the removable bowl is not usedfor the washing of instruments.These sinks should not be used for hand-washing.12