Personal and and environmental hygiene are key healthcare issues. Here, Terry Ashenden reports how autoclaves incorporate advanced surface hygiene coating to combat surface bacterial growth.
Autoclaves are used as the main method of sterilising equipment in hospital laboratories throughout the world with countless other applications in such industries as pharmaceuticals, food and research etc.
Typical sterilisation applications cover media preparation, glassware and instruments, healthcare and waste disposal but all are critical in the maintenance of good hygiene practice and sterile working conditions.
Personal and environmental hygiene and patient care are matters on every healthcare agenda presently.
Fear and apprehension
The refusal of the hospital asuperbug' to lay down and die has injected caution, fear and apprehension into the veins of all those wrested with the responsibility of eliminating the killer risk of secondary infection.
In UK hospitals around nine per cent of all patients leave with an infection acquired during their stay. Some 5000 die each year as a direct result of these infections.
Potential breeding ground
While the outside of the autoclave is not a main source of infection it is clearly a potential breeding ground.
As a single example among many in a hospital laboratory, the surface will be inevitably touched by operatives handling pathogenic organisms during normal use of the equipment and is therefore likely to be an area where cross-contamination may be an issue.
The recognition of these hazards has inspired the development of the technology BioCote, a patent protected, powder coating technology that aids the fight against bacteria and cross contamination by inhibiting the growth of a wide range of micro-organisms, including E-Coli, Listeria, Pseudomonas and MRSA, on the exterior surfaces of the equipment.
It can render products and equipment safe for use in areas where hygiene is critical.
Possible further developments
Priorclave, with its pioneering technology, has negotiated an exclusive licence for the use of BioCote and the brand name in the manufacture of all their autoclaves in order to play a leading and active role in creating a clean, hygienic environment for all those working in all areas where autoclaves are used.
This new technology should not be regarded as a replacement of good cleaning practice but should be seen as an enhancement, giving an additional level of hygiene and much comfort to those who sit where the buck must eventually stop.
Hospital safeguards for patient care and protection are issues never likely to take a back seat.
Those at the forefront with the specific responsibility will ignore these issues at their peril. And those who do not will hopefully enjoy as healthy a future as we expect every patient would like.
Priorclave, manufacturers of low pressure (up to 2.4 Bar) steam autoclaves for use in laboratories throughout the food, drink, dairy, health and pharmaceutical industries, also manufacture climatic cabinets.
Enquiry No 72
Terry Ashenden is Technical Director with Priorclave Ltd based in Woolwich, London, UK. www.priorclave.co.uk
