The CSC Annual Scientific Meeting 2025 is a two day event bringing together scientific, thought and practice leaders, who are in the field of Decontamination of reusable medical devices and the built environment of healthcare.

TOPICS COVERED

• The theme for this year’s ASM is ‘Risk and Revolution,’ and considers whether improvements we have traditionally made, need to be revolutionised. Can we embrace risk as being a legitimate avenue for action with scope to fundamentally change, revolutionise the delivery of efficient solutions within the decontamination and infection prevention and control field.
• This year’s Kelsey Lecturer is Sulisti Holmes, who brings a wealth of practical experience to our event. Her role within NHS Assure (Scotland) means she is well respected, not only in the UK, but also across Europe and many areas around the World. Sulisti will be highlighting the importance of a transparent culture, escalating, and reporting medical device incidents to ensure a ‘lesson learnt’ culture.
• We also investigate Theatre culture and behaviour, are we wasting time decontaminating devices to a high standard, when Theatres may not share the same level of diligence. We have one session dedicated to such an area and look at how important ventilation services are to ensure contamination rates are minimised within such an environment. Manual cleaning of flexible endoscopes has always been an area for variability. Are there systems on the market today to provide greater assurance? Are these systems going to revolutionise the decontamination life cycle used for flexible endoscopes? What obstacles to change are in place to prevent such systems being incorporated?
• Day 1 concludes by looking at the revisions currently being negotiated for the revised Medical Device Regulations, where does this leave us as healthcare providers and Decontamination Service Centres? Does this present an issue to the Clinical Teams working within Urgent Care Centres? What are the perceived risks? We will hear a Clinicians viewpoint from the sharp end of surgery.
• Day 2 opens with ‘Microbiology madness. We hear from two of our clinicians from within the CSC, hearing their own opinions as to where the biggest risks are when managing medical devices and controlling infection transmissions. It is traditionally recognised that such experts will always have their own interpretation of risk, so it should be a mouthwatering session that will educate and enlighten. We have a session on public health concerns, investigating requirements within the cosmetic and body art industry. What are the practicalities that are present? How should we educate the providers and focus on raising standards of decontamination and infection control. We look at the recent legislative work from Wales to raise the profile within the sector.
• The event closes with presentations and debate from our Authorised Engineer (Decontamination) members. Firstly, a delivery looking at how we should operationally manage steam sterilizers outside of the normal SSD sector. Such units installed within healthcare, research, and/or laboratory sectors. Are these areas the forgotten locations for such plant and should they be managed in accordance with traditional HTM guidelines? The annual debate discusses the validation regimes currently and historically instigated for equipment used to decontaminate medical devices. Do HTM’s promote technological advancement when validating sterilizers/washer disinfectors and other ancillary items used to reprocess reusable medical devices?

WHO SHOULD ATTEND?

• Decontamination Leads
• Sterile Services Managers
• Endoscopy Managers
• Authorising Engineers (Decontamination) and (Water)
• Infection Prevention and Control Leads
• Clinical Microbiologists with a passion for decontamination and infection prevention and control
• Organisations providing a service or equipment that contributes to decontamination and infection prevention and control
• Individuals with an interest in decontamination , medical devices and IPC

SPEAKERS

• Sulisti Holmes - Head of Decontamination and Incident Reporting Investigation Centre, acting as the strategic lead for medical device safety and decontamination in NHS Scotland
• Claire Jones-Manning - Decontamination Lead and Deputy Head of Operations for Intensive care , Theatres , Pain and Sleep ( ITAPS)
• Becky Peach - Theatre Productivity Clinical Lead
• Andrew Poplett - AE(W), AE(V), IEng, MIHEEM, ACIBSE, AffIFE
• Jim Tinsdeall – AE(D)
• Sharon Fox - Head of Decontamination which covers the Third party ‘Sterile service’ contract and Central Decontamination service for UHB
• Jack Walters - Founder and managing director of consultancy and training company Sterile Management Systems Ltd
• Mike Simmons – Consulting Clinical Microbiologist
• Layth Alsaffar – Consulting Microbiologist: Salisbury and Portsmouth Hospitals
• Karren Staniforth Consultant Clinical Scientist specialising in Environmental Microbiology and IPC
• Amanda Daniel – Lead Nurse Specialist IPC Primary and Community Care HARP
• Brian Kirk - Sterilisation consultant, Standards development and Education
• Richard Bancroft – Senior Director, Scientific, STERIS
• John Prendergast - Principle Decontamination Engineer working within the specialist team at NHS Wales Shared Services Partnership/Specialist Estates Services.
• Mark Furmage – AE(D)

For more information, please contact: events@centralsterilisingclub.org.