A new procurement framework from NHS Shared Business Services (NHS SBS) is designed to support NHS hospitals and theatres to manage sterilisation, decontamination and repair of surgical equipment efficiently, and meet clinical demand.
The Decontamination Services and Solutions framework offers end-to-end decontamination solutions. It comes at a time that sees the building and roll-out of surgical hubs being scaled up across the country to increase capacity and ease the pressure on elective surgery. It is expected that surgical hubs will give rise to at least 100 more operating theatres, helping to deliver two million extra routine operations over the next three years, and cut waiting lists for surgical treatments.
The framework has been put together to help Trusts to maintain quick and efficient turnaround of reprocessed and sterilised instruments to support surgical and clinical teams to work through the backlog and reduce further pressure on services. It addresses the challenges in the system, such as increasing use of reusable Personal Protective Equipment to reduce waste in support of sustainability goals, which puts more pressure on decontamination services. An increase in robotic surgery has also created a need for specialist decontamination services to manage the reprocessing of highly delicate instruments.
NHS organisations are also facing a shortage of decontamination staff, resulting in increased training requirements to upskill in-house teams.
Comprising four lots (service types), NHS SBS’s framework agreement covers the provision of outsourced decontamination and sterilisation of surgical instruments either on-site or of off-site, and involves the cleaning, reprocessing, repair and sterilisation of surgical instruments to support surgery and other activities.
The framework agreement also includes options to procure specialist equipment for the reprocessing of High-Level Disinfection of Probes. Many medical probes are designed to be reusable. Reprocessing allows healthcare facilities to effectively clean and disinfect them, critical to prevention and spread of Infection and maintaining patient safety.
The free to access framework agreement provides a convenient, compliant and cost-effective method of purchasing decontamination services and solutions at pace. NHS Trusts can use it to choose and purchase goods and services from seven suppliers, each of whom have undergone a competitive and rigorous selection process to be included on the framework agreement.
Commenting on the new framework, Elaine Alsop, Head of Category - Health, says: “Our all-encompassing Decontamination Services and Solutions framework agreement supports best practice, compliance, drives sustainability and cost-effectiveness. It offers options from complete outsourcing of decontamination services, the ability for extra capacity to be provided either in an emergency or long term to augment a customer's own facilities, and a specialist lot for the decontamination of high-level probes.
“Developed in collaboration with NHS clinical stakeholders, NHS Trust procurement teams and leading decontamination solution vendors, it has taken a high-level approach in reviewing the market, capturing service needs and offering NHS Trusts the choice to combine multiple service options and offerings to suit their specific decontamination needs, meet challenges and keep patients safe.”
