Health board plans new unit for decontamination of medical equipment after damning report

Nicholas Thomas, local democracy reporter

A health board is planning to build a new £4.7 million unit for the decontamination of medical equipment.

Aneurin Bevan University Health Board is set to build the unit at the Royal Gwent Hospital.

Current facilities for cleaning endoscopy kit at the Newport hospital are piecemeal, “inadequate and in non-compliant settings”, according to a new report.

They do not have “appropriate segregation between dirty and clean areas”, as well as restricted space and ventilation.

Demand increase

At a public board meeting on Wednesday May 22, Hannah Evans, the health board’s director of strategy, said there was a “huge demand increase for decontamination services” at the hospital, which recently doubled the capacity of its endoscopy facilities.

The health board is currently dealing with the surge in demand by renting a “mobile decontamination unit” which costs around £120,000 a year to run.

Ms Evans told the meeting the temporary arrangements were “very challenging” and risked falling foul of national requirements unless a permanent improvement was made.

The board agreed to back a plan to redevelop existing facilities at the Royal Gwent, to create a centralised decontamination unit that will work with multiple departments in the hospital.

Ms Evans said construction work on the new unit could begin in October, with a view to it opening in the summer of 2025.