The Dental National Decontamination Survey 2010

This report contains results of a survey of decontamination standards in primary care dental practices The survey was conducted on a voluntary basis, by Primary Care Trusts (PCTs) and dental practices, with support from the Department of Health (DH) and the Health Protection Agency (HPA). It involved 75 Primary Care Trusts (PCTs) providing infection control specialists to conduct a questionnaire based exercise on decontamination systems in 487 local dental practice covering 508 sites. The survey outcomes were analysed using a model which is based directly on the HTM 01-05 guidance package. The survey shows that 71% of the dental practices visited were achieving the essential quality requirements (EQR) described in HTM 01-05. This the level at which, there is effective risk reduction from re-use of dental instruments. Nearly 20% more practices could reach this standard, with small improvements to their technical performance, protocols and by better maintenance of decontamination equipment. The survey showed the cleaning of instruments to be one area where performance was uneven. Effective cleaning of instruments is critical to the achievement of a sterilized instrument at the end of the decontamination process. About 12%of practices did not achieve a satisfactory standard of decontamination On the other hand, some 20 % of the total participants have achieved the higher best practice standard in HTM 01-05, for which the Department has not yet set a timeframe for implementation. The survey and associated analytical techniques have been subject to independent peer review conducted by a team at Manchester University