The Hospital Sterilisation and Decontamination Unit (HSDU) teams at Royal Blackburn Teaching Hospital (RBTH) and Burnley General Teaching Hospital (BGTH) have won ‘Employee of the Month’ award for August.
The two teams were nominated for their rapid response and exceptionally hard work following a fire on one of the washer disinfectors in the HSDU at RBTH, back in July.
Night staff promptly called the Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service, rapidly evacuated the Unit and maintained an uninterrupted service to the hospital’s wards and theatres.
Meanwhile, a Decontamination Engineer removed the faulty heater to prevent the Fire Officers from flooding the unit and causing further damage.
“The tireless efforts and extra work has been recognised in the form of the Employee of the Month award, which the teams at both hospitals have received and is exceptionally well deserved,” says Chief Executive Kevin McGee.
Since the fire, the HSDU team have worked tirelessly to continue providing quality controlled and accredited disinfected and sterilised theatre equipment trays to enable theatre sessions to continue. They want all theatre instrument trays to be available when needed for the patients.
In order to deal with their extra workload, Royal Blackburn staff relocated to Burnley hospital to adjust to the procedures on that site.
“I’m proud of the way that the whole team pulled together and worked even harder than normal to ensure instrument trays for theatres at both hospitals were available on time,” said ELHT Linen Services Manager, Lynn Fort.