The Endoscopy Outreach Department at Neath & Port Talbot Hospital uses four QED Washer Disinfectors (WDs) to disinfect medical devices including bronchoscopes, gastroscopes, colonoscopes, cystoscopes and duodenoscopes.
The quality of the water going into the washers had been tested in accordance with HTM2030.
Shirley Kivi joined as Decontamination Manager of Abertawe Bro Morgannwg University Health Board in September 2013. When she reviewed rinse water quality testing at Neath & Port Talbot Hospital Endoscopy department, she found endoscopy final rinse water issues.
As a result of water testing changes in February 2013, from a three-day testing regime to the new five-day regime, the department was regularly exceeding the acceptable levels for rinse water; the average was in excess of 100 TVC’s per 100ml of sample water. Shirley explains: “A lot of remedial work had been done such as changing filters, using new flexible tubing and self-disinfecting the WDs with double
doses of chlorine tablets, but water testing results did not improve. I then went to one of Tristel’s water quality presentations in Builth and I found out about Tristel Rinse Assure.”
On 11 April 2014, T.E.S.T. engineers installed one Tristel Rinse Assure to dose two of the four QED WDs on bays three and four. Bays one and two continued to operate with the existing filtered mains water configuration to act as control bays. Once the installation of Tristel Rinse Assure was complete, several high dose cycles were run to purge the WDs. Daily samples were taken by the hospital and sent to three laboratories. Prior to the installation of Tristel Rinse Assure, full water samples were taken by T.E.S.T., Llandough Water Lab and Carmarthen Water Lab to assess the quality of the water that was currently supplied to the four QED WDs. All results showed high TVCs.
By 16 April and up to 13 May 2014, all T.E.S.T. water sample test results for bays three and four showed zero TVCs. Llandough Water Lab took water samples from all four bays during the same period. These results showed that in bays one and two there were high TVCs in excess of 100cfu. Bays three and four, the Tristel Rinse Assure bays, passed with no growth detected. Only 5 days after installation, Tristel Rinse Assure had reduced TVCs to zero.
