A new €5 million Central Decontamination Unit at Cappagh National Orthopaedic Hospital, in Dublin, was officially opened today by Mary O’Rourke, patron of Cappagh Hospital Foundation and Mr Nikolai Burkart, Chairman of Zehnacker Ireland Healthcare.
Funded by the HSE, the Cappagh Hospital Foundation and Zehnacker Ireland Healthcare through a Joint Venture Agreement at Cappagh National Orthopaedic Hospital, the new Central Decontamination Unit is the first of its kind in Ireland capable of providing commercial Central Decontamination Services to the wider healthcare and associated industries, in addition to meeting the needs of Cappagh National Orthopaedic Hospital.
The HSE introduced standards for Decontamination of Reusable Invasive Medical Devices in 2011 which require all decontamination facilities to achieve specific standards regarding quality of service. This new unit was constructed to be fully compliant with the HSE standards, European standards and ISO standard 13485. This will ensure that all medical devices processed in the new unit are decontaminated to the most current Irish and European requirements.
This development at Cappagh National Orthopaedic Hospital is another major step in its infrastructural plan to ensure its patients have access to the best possible care using the most current equipment and processes
The new unit is commercially managed by Zehnacker Ireland Healthcare to provide fully accredited, HSE and European standard compliant decontamination services to the Irish Healthcare Industry. The unit was specifically developed to allow other healthcare facilities avail of the decontamination process, a concept which is common in most European healthcare settings. This sharing of facilities and services has the potential to ensure a better quality service to patients and reduce the overall cost of decontamination.
“Zehnacker Ireland Healthcare is proud to be associated with CNOH from conception to final construction of this new facility. We see the practice of sharing state of the art facilities between hospitals as the cornerstone for ensuring quality and achieving cost savings. This has been the experience of healthcare organisations internationally, including our parent company in Europe” said John O’ Carroll, CEO of Zehnacker Ireland Healthcare.
Cappagh is the country’s national tertiary referral centre for both adult and children’s orthopaedics. A total of 24 consultant orthopaedic surgeons confer and work together to deliver a highly specialised and efficient service in this major orthopaedic centre.