Decontamination in primary care dental practices - Gov.uk

9 Staff roles and responsibilities in decontaminationCompetent Person (Pressure Vessels). This is likelyto be provided by an insurance company.Service engineer: a person provided under aservice level agreement or contract who is certifiedby the service agent or equipment manufacturer tobe competent to both service and test specifieddecontamination equipment. This person may,among other duties, perform validation tests inaccordance with the EN standards cited in thisdocument. The service engineer may give anopinion on the outcomes of validation testing aswell as providing data to an Authorising Engineer(Decontamination) or Authorised Person(Decontamination) for validation approval.User: this person has day-to-day responsibilityfor the management of the decontaminationequipment and processes. A likely overlapmay mean that this role is duplicated, but theresponsibility must be demonstrated. An importantfunction of the User is to ensure that anyoneoperating and testing decontamination equipment(that is, an Operator) is suitably trained andcompetent.The User should seek advice from manufacturers orthe service engineer on how to carry out the testingof equipment and daily tasks.With regard to infection control, the User shouldseek advice from infection control teams, whichmay consist of a microbiologist or control ofinfection officer.Operator: this is the person with authority tooperate decontamination equipment. This personwill also carry out daily and weekly periodic tests.Manufacturer: the manufacturer, supplier or agentof any decontamination equipmentPurchaser: the purchaser of any decontaminationequipment – likely to be the practice.9.4 In addition to these roles the practice may requirespecialist clinical advice and guidance and shouldpossess the ability to source the followingresponsibilities, either within the practice orexternally.Control of Infection Officer: advice regardinginfection prevention and control and the ability toaudit and implement relevant advice.Microbiologist (Decontamination): whilemost decontamination processes are a matter ofparametric management and control (that is,ensuring that values of key measurements orindicators are within a specified range fordecontamination), advice from a Microbiologist(Decontamination) may be required for certainprocedures and practices. This advice should besought where the practice is in doubt about itsrelevance. Access to a Microbiologist can be madevia institutions that employ such professionals. Thiswould include acute trusts, pathology departmentsand Public Health England laboratories.9.5 The Registered Manager should ensure thatall personnel fulfilling the roles defined aboveshould receive appropriate training, that they candemonstrate competency in their duties and thatindividual training records for all staff are retained.Training should always be supported by definedlearning outcomes and competencies and mayinclude, where appropriate, the following:• an understanding of the whole decontaminationprocess;• an understanding of their roles and those ofothers;• an understanding of the need for infectioncontrol and all relevant infection controlpolicies and procedures;• an understanding of, and an ability to perform,periodic testing where appropriate.9.6 Full identification of the individuals fulfilling theseroles should be documented. It may be acceptableif staff of other titles fulfil the responsibilities aslong as the post-holder’s authority and experience issufficient for their full implementation.9.7 It is likely in a dental facility that the rolesabove will be provided by a number of entities/organisations. All roles should thus be identifiedand all individuals aware of each other. Thesystematic approach to these roles should ensurethat they function correctly and that they are notindividual-based but can withstand changes ofpersonnel without affecting the systematicapproach. Advice on relevant training programmesis available from the Authorising Engineer(Decontamination).47