University facilities secured to support Foresterhill decontamination efforts during shutdown

As NHS Grampian continues extensive refurbishment works to restore its Central Decontamination Unit (CDU) at Foresterhill, their manual washing process is to move temporarily to the University of Aberdeen’s Life Sciences building on the same site.

Alan Wilson, director of infrastructure and sustainability for NHS Grampian explained: “The decontamination of surgical instruments involves a three-stage process. First, colleagues do a manual wash, then all items go through a machine washer and, finally, a through a sterilisation machine.

“Until now, we’ve managed to accommodate the manual wash within our existing facilities but the extent of refurbishment works means this will move to the university building for the time-being. Improving the long-term resilience of the CDU building and equipment means extensive repairs and improvements are needed and, as we’ve explained before, we can’t do everything we need to do while it’s operational.

“Our working timeline for having the unit fully operational now takes us to just before Christmas, subject to water testing, and we’re pulling out all the stops to get all works completed as quickly as possible. We’re hugely grateful to all our teams working on this, and to colleagues from the University of Aberdeen for their immediate response to our request for support and for accommodating us at very short notice.”  

The findings of a sampling process led by NHS Assure to help determine the source of a substance found on a small number of instruments during processing at the beginning of October are currently being reviewed.

Approximately 749 elective surgical procedures and 739 dental outpatient appointments have been postponed since the Foresterhill CDU was taken out of use. Some patients have already been re-booked and, with extra decontamination capacity now available with the support of partners across Scotland, theatre activity is increasing.

Paul Bachoo, acute medical director for NHS Grampian commented: “The partnership effort going on is second-to-none. Our specialist decontamination unit colleagues have been going above and beyond for weeks now. That continues alongside all those involved in the logistics of processing instruments across the country, with the ongoing support of other NHS boards as well as private contractors.

“While we’ve continued to deliver the full range of clinical activity in our operating theatres during the closure – hundreds every week – we are now substantially increasing all activities which will help to reduce waiting times.

“We’re also maximising activity in national treatment centres, using single-use items where appropriate to allow for surgeries to go ahead and continuing with as many additional outpatient clinics as possible.

“Our health intelligence team is supporting the effort to prioritise clinical activity as effectively as possible. We know the impact the closure has had on individuals and families is hugely significant and we are continuing to do absolutely everything we can to mitigate that and get people booked in as quickly as possible.”