The Sterile Services Department at Yeovil District Hospital provides decontamination (sterilisation) services for healthcare related organisations, including acute and community hospitals, GPs, dentists and podiatrists, in Somerset and Dorset and across the south west.

Located in a state of the art fully accredited building adjacent to the operating theatres on level 5, it is staffed by a dedicated team who work across all areas providing an essential service to the hospital and its customers. They supply the operating theatres with sterile instruments, and wards and departments with specific items required for patient care.

The department consists of three distinct areas – the wash area, packing area and autoclave area. The used equipment and instruments are collected and taken to the wash area and put into automatic washers which both wash and disinfect the instruments. The washers open into the clean packing room and the instruments are checked and packed. The packed trays are then loaded into an autoclave and sterilised ready for return to the theatres and wards.

All theatre instruments are tracked through the decontamination cycle by a specialist computer system which allows the staff to ensure correct cleaning and sterilisation has taken place. This system also allows trays of instruments to be tracked to each patient and procedure.

A compliant sterilisation service for other healthcare providers

As well as servicing Yeovil District Hospital’s surgical instruments the Sterile Services Unit can also supply a wide range of healthcare providers with a safe, reliable, cost effective and fully accredited decontamination service. The new state-of-the-art decontamination centre ensures that surgical equipment is decontaminated and sterilised to the required standards.

Healthcare service providers need to have in place modern facilities that ensure decontamination is achieved in compliance with the current standards. The unit is fully accredited to the following standards:

  • MDD 93/42/EEC
  • ISO 9001:2008
  • ISO 13485:2003

Yeovil District Hospital is now able to offer other healthcare providers:

  • A complete decontamination, packaging and sterilising service
  • Agreed customer turnaround times
  • Various transport options
  • Competitively priced personal service
  • A fully compliant accredited service
  • A tailored package to meet clients’ individual needs
  • Instrument repair and replacement
  • Contaminated returns and wash room
  • IAP room. Inspect and pack room with pass through autoclaves for sterilisation

The new building is the first sterile services unit in the country to receive an excellent rating under the BREEAM environmental assessment scheme which sets the standard for best practice in sustainable design and is the measure used to describe a building’s environmental performance. In the current economic climate there is a keen interest in collaborative working between health providers to improve quality, introduce innovation and achieve savings, let us help you achieve this.

Yeovil District Hospital NHS Foundation Trust can support you by providing:

  • A quality compliant service at a competitive price
  • Experienced, skilled and professional staff
  • A service from within a consistently high performing Foundation Trust
  • External accreditation
  • A service that puts clinical quality and patient safety first

We aim to provide you with a personalised service. If you think that our services can support your organisation please contact Kelly Walker SSD Operational Manager on 01935 383435 to discuss how we can work together.

Located on the A37 and close to the A303 there are excellent road links from Yeovil to Bristol, Bath and the West Country.