Sterile Services

 The Sterile Services department cleans and sterilises all the equipment used in the hospital's theatres.

It is a service that is never seen by patients but, without it, operations would cease within 48 hours.

The department also provides an equipment cleaning, decontamination and sterilising service for other hospitals in the area, GP surgeries and health centres

The 117 strong staff keep the department working 24 hours a day to process over 370,000 pieces of theatre equipment every year.

The Sterile Services department is the first to have moved in to the new hospital currently being built on the city General site. The new purpose built 'state of the art' department has the latest technology and equipment with which to process the surgical instruments.

The department has developed and implemented a Quality Management System which meets the requirements of BS EN ISO 9001:2000, BS EN 46002:1997, BS EN ISO 13485:2003 and the Medical Devices Directive, using Article 12 as the route to compliance. This ensures that any medical device (surgical instruments in this instance) that are used in a surgical procedure are fit for purpose and sterilised to the highest standards.