Sterilization and disinfection in general practice within university health services

A postal questionnaire on 'sterilization and disinfection' was sent to all 144 nurse members of the British Association of Health Services in Higher E ducation (BAHSHE). Forty-nine (34%) completed valid questionnaires were ret urned. Despite the majority of practices performing minor surgical procedur es such as cervical cytology (N = 40, 82%), ear syringing (N = 44, 90%) and wound dressing (N = 49, 100%), only 11 (22%) had access to a sterile suppl y department (SSD), and the definitions of sterilization and disinfection w ere only identified by 23 (52%) and 14 (32%) of the respondents, respective ly. Forty-one (84%) respondents had a benchtop sterilizer (30 had a benchto p sterilizer, 11 a vacuum sterilizer and two had both), although there was considerable confusion on their appropriate use and maintenance. just over half had written procedures for sterilizer use, no practice changed the ste rilizer water on a daily basis as recommended by the Medical Devices Agency (MDA), few kept a sterilizer logbook and even fewer had read the MDA Devic e Bulletin on benchtop sterilizers. The majority of respondents voiced an i nterest in attending a workshop on sterilization and disinfection. We concl ude that despite the location of the general practices within an academic e nvironment, the concept of infection control is clearly not understood by u niversity health service staff. As the implications of a failure to impleme nt proper infection control procedures are potentially serious, the need fo r adequate education and training of staff is of critical importance. (C) 2 001 The Hospital Infection Society.