A newly-equipped sterile services department has opened at Lynn\u2019s hospital, and is expected to support thousands of patients every year.<\/p>\n
The opening at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital marks a major milestone in the trust\u2019s reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC) safety programme, relocating the department from an ageing RAAC\u2011affected building into a modern modular unit.<\/p>\n
The new department plays a crucial but often unseen role in patient care – not only at the QEH but also for external healthcare professionals in the community, such as GPs, podiatry and dentists.<\/p>\n
The QEH team celebrate the opening of the new sterile services department<\/p>\n
At the QEH, the team is responsible for cleaning, decontaminating and sterilising every reusable medical instrument used across the hospital – from surgical trays in operating theatres to scopes, devices and equipment used in outpatient clinics.<\/p>\n
In 2025-2026, the team cleaned around 77,000 instrument trays for surgical procedures.<\/p>\n
This essential work of the SSD ensures clinical teams have the safe, sterile tools they need for the thousands of life-changing and life\u2011saving procedures the QEH carries out each year. Without this team, procedures cannot take place.<\/p>\n
The new modular unit has been purpose\u2011designed to protect the continuity of this critical service. It brings improved working conditions for staff and houses advanced technology that supports the highest standards of medical device decontamination.<\/p>\n
The upgraded equipment replaces older systems and boosts efficiency, reliability and quality across the service.<\/p>\n
Jill Dawson, sterile services manager, said: \u201cWe are delighted to have moved into our new unit. This modern, purpose\u2011built environment will make a real difference to our staff and the teams we support and, ultimately, to our patients who rely on us every single day.\u201d<\/p>\n
Richard Parker, chief operating officer at the QEH, added: \u201cSterile services are fundamental to the safe, life\u2011saving care our clinicians provide. Relocating the department was essential to ensure we could continue delivering the full range of services our patients depend on.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am incredibly proud of the teams who worked tirelessly to make sure the move happened smoothly and without disruption to patient care.\u201d<\/p>\n
The new modular sterile services building will remain part of the hospital infrastructure during the transition to a newly-built QEH.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A newly-equipped sterile services department has opened at Lynn\u2019s hospital, and is expected to support thousands of patients…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":510050,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[102,2960,8781,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-510049","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-healthcare","8":"tag-health","9":"tag-healthcare","10":"tag-kings-lynn","11":"tag-uk","12":"tag-united-kingdom","13":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/510049","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=510049"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/510049\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/510050"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=510049"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=510049"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=510049"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}