Surgical Instruments (Hansard, 15 October 2002)

HC Deb 15 October 2002 vol 390 c814W 814W

§ Mr. Hunter
To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) how many NHS hospitals have received delivery of new surgical instrument decontamination equipment as a result of the commitment of the £200 million at the start of 2001; [73979]
(2) what progress has been made with regard to spending the money announced at the start of 2001 to upgrade hospital decontamination facilities. [73977]

§ Mr. Lammy
At the end of August, £85 million had been allocated to 101 schemes proposed by National Health Service trusts for improving their decontamination facilities. These schemes included purchasing new equipment, upgrading the buildings used for reprocessing and purchasing new surgical instruments to facilitate the centralisation of reprocessing. This, together with contributions from the NHS trusts themselves, amounted to an investment of some £107 million. Similar bids worth another £10 million were still being considered.
In order to get the best value for money, the tendering process for equipment has been undertaken by the NHS purchasing and supply agency. Individual contracts are awarded by the NHS trusts themselves, taking into account local issues such as the expected completion of essential building work. The installation of equipment will follow these necessary preparations.

§ Mr. Hunter
To ask the Secretary of State for Health what progress has been made in the procurement rounds organised by the NHS Purchasing and Supply Agency for new surgical instrument decontamination equipment since the commitment of £200 million at the start of 2001. [73978]

§ Mr. Lammy
The NHS purchasing and supply agency tendered for all the sterilizers and washer-disinfector requirements that were identified as part of the immediate investment process to upgrade existing decontamination facilities within the National Health Service in England.
This major investment covers in excess of 70 NHS trusts across the country for 115 sterilizers, 171 washer-disinfectors and a large amount of associated equipment and accessories to the approximate value of £28 million.
A number of suitable sites have recently been identified for intermediate investment and the NHS purchasing and supply agency is in the process of procuring this additional equipment.
A significant proportion of the £200 million is being spent on building work to improve segregation and the purchase of surgical instruments to enable centralisation of the service.