Decontamination Technician

QE Facilities•Gateshead, NE

1d•Onsite

About The Position

The post holder will undertake decontamination and sterilisation duties according to equipment requirements and assist the supervisors and managers in providing a high-quality accredited (EN ISO 13485:2016 & JAG) service. This will include logistical responsibilities and store management processes of reusable medical devices utilized within clinical care, and the sterilization of pathology waste. The post holder will be required to receive, disassemble, clean, disinfect, reassemble, pack, sterilize as appropriate, dispatch, transfer, and store devices within controlled environments, ensuring comprehensive records of all tasks are maintained for tracking traceability purposes. This will necessitate the operation of specific computer and database applications. Because some tasks expected within this role are governed by regulation (UK MDR), the employee must work in accordance with national guidance and published research, the departments Standard Operating Procedures, and quality management systems to ensure an effective and compliant service is delivered. The role will be a rotational post working between sterile services, endoscopy decontamination services, SSD logistics, and theatre store and pathology decontamination. This involves the reprocessing of surgical instrumentation, Endoscopes, theatre logistics, and reprocessing waste in pathology decontamination.

Requirements

Must cover a minimum of 3 years employment or education references.
Must provide the address, telephone number and work email address of current/previous line managers that cover 3 years employment or education references.
Must provide references from two separate employers where possible.
Must work in accordance with national guidance and published research, the departments Standard Operating Procedures and quality management systems.
Will come into contact with remnants of blood, body tissue or offensive by-products as part of the cleaning cycles.
The role is physically demanding and requires significant amounts of manual handling.

Nice To Haves

Accredited (EN ISO 13485:2016 & JAG) service experience.
Experience with logistical responsibilities and store management processes of reusable medical devices.
Experience with sterilization of pathology waste.
Experience with UK MDR regulations.

Responsibilities

Inform senior staff if asked or expected to work unsupervised without the relevant training or level of competence.
Attend training courses and partake in any other training strategies (mandatory and non-mandatory) as required to maintain knowledge and skills.
Participate in own 1:1 meetings and PDP development.
Assist with the supervision and teaching in decontamination practices to new and less experienced technicians.
Support departmental needs to ensure monitoring, maintenance & servicing requirements of endoscopes and theatre instruments are undertaken in a way that offers little service disruption and report accordingly to senior staff.
Ensure routine tests are undertaken and recorded in accordance with the Planned Preventative Maintenance Schedules, Quality Standards and Guidance.
Undertake regular audits of decontamination and sterilisation processes and action any discrepancies to departmental guidelines.
Adhere to the recommendations for the Control of Substances Hazardous to Health (COSHH) and risk assessments appropriate to the clinical area.
Inspect equipment within the decontamination cycle to ensure processes are effective.
Recognise devices by name and ensure theatre trays and endoscopes are repacked correctly with correct instruments and ancillary items, responsible for checking loan devices/trays and ensuring the correct items delivered prior to clinical use.
Attend and participate in departmental meetings.
Support the development or refreshing standard operating procedures according to service change and modernisation.
Receive, disassemble, clean, disinfect, reassemble, pack, sterilise as appropriate, dispatch, transfer and store devices within controlled environments.
Maintain comprehensive records of all tasks for tracking traceability purposes.
Operate specific computer and database applications.
Work in accordance with national guidance and published research, the departments Standard Operating Procedures and quality management systems.