Reducing Staff Risk: The Clinical Safety of Modern Washers

 Reducing Staff Risk: The Clinical Safety of Modern Washers

Why staff safety matters in procurement

Infection prevention is essential to protecting patients, but the safety of the healthcare professionals carrying out decontamination processes also needs to be considered.

The NHS Value-Based Procurement (VBP) national standard guidance for medical technology places patient and staff safety within Domain 3: Patient and Staff. Specifically, Question 3.4 asks how a medical technology solution can safely reduce the risk of harm to clinicians and healthcare personnel compared with the current way of working.

For sluice room equipment, this creates an important procurement consideration:

Can modern technology reduce unnecessary staff exposure while maintaining effective infection control?

Where can staff risk occur?

Sluice rooms require staff to routinely handle contaminated reusable items, including bedpans, urine bottles and washbowls.

Depending on the equipment and existing processes, staff may also need to manually open and close the washer, operate controls and handle items throughout the decontamination process.

Repeated throughout a busy shift, these interactions can create unnecessary exposure and manual tasks.

For Infection Control Managers and Clinical Governance Leads, reviewing these processes can help identify where technology could reduce avoidable risk.

How modern bedpan washers can support staff safety

Modern bedpan washers can automate key stages of the decontamination process, reducing unnecessary manual interaction.

Automatic lid opening

Once a cycle has finished, the lid opens automatically, reducing the need for staff to manually operate the machine.

Automatic lid closing

After contaminated items have been loaded, the lid closes automatically, removing another manual step before the cycle begins.

Contactless operation

Sensor-operated controls can reduce physical contact with frequently used controls, supporting wider infection prevention measures.

Automated cleaning and thermal disinfection

Automated cleaning and thermal disinfection reduces the need for staff to manually clean contaminated reusable items, helping create a more consistent process while reducing direct exposure.

Compare the technology with the current way of working

One of the most useful principles within the VBP guidance is the emphasis on comparing proposed solutions with the current delivery of care. For Question 3.4, suppliers are expected to demonstrate how their solution improves healthcare personnel safety compared with the existing equivalent process.

For a sluice room procurement, this could mean asking:

Current process	What should be assessed?
Manual lid operation	Can unnecessary contact be reduced?
Physical controls	Can contactless operation reduce touchpoints?
Manual handling	Can automation reduce staff interaction with contaminated items?
Existing equipment	How does the proposed solution improve staff safety?
Established workflow	Can changes be introduced without creating new risks?

The exact assessment will depend on the individual healthcare environment and existing equipment.

The important point is that a new washer should be assessed against the current process, rather than simply against another product specification.

Could automation reduce staff risk?

Reviewing existing sluice room equipment and workflows can help identify where manual handling and unnecessary touchpoints could be reduced.

From product features to measurable outcomes

The VBP guidance emphasises that suppliers should demonstrate how their solution improves staff safety compared with the current equivalent delivery of care. Evidence can include real-world or trial data, operational reliability, exposure-control features and information about potential staff harm avoided.

This means procurement teams can ask practical questions such as:

• What risks do staff currently face?
• Which tasks require unnecessary manual interaction?
• How does the proposed equipment reduce those risks?
• What evidence demonstrates the improvement?
• How will staff feedback be captured?

This approach moves staff safety beyond a product claim and towards an outcome that can be assessed and monitored.

Staff safety and infection control go hand in hand

Reducing staff risk and improving infection control are closely connected.

Limiting unnecessary contact with contaminated equipment can help reduce exposure while automated decontamination provides a consistent process.

For Infection Control Managers, this can support infection prevention objectives. For Heads of Nursing, it can contribute to safer and more manageable working practices. For Clinical Governance Leads, it provides another measurable consideration when evaluating medical technology.

The VBP guidance also highlights the importance of involving clinicians in evidence validation and capturing user feedback when assessing staff safety.

Is existing equipment still delivering the required level of safety?

Switch & Save helps healthcare organisations review existing sluice room equipment and identify opportunities to improve infection control, staff safety and efficiency.

Find Out About Switch & Save

Looking at the wider value of medical technology

Value-Based Procurement encourages NHS buyers to assess medical technology according to the outcomes it can deliver, rather than focusing solely on specification and purchase price. The guidance includes five value domains, alongside whole-life cost, with buyers selecting the areas most relevant to their procurement.

For bedpan washers, staff safety can therefore be considered alongside:

• Infection prevention
• Operational efficiency
• Ease of use
• Reliability
• Whole-life cost

This provides a more complete picture of the value a solution can deliver throughout its working life.

A safer approach to sluice room procurement

Modernising a sluice room is an opportunity to examine existing processes and identify where technology could reduce unnecessary staff exposure and manual intervention.

By applying VBP Domain 3.4, procurement teams can ask not only whether a washer meets the required specification, but whether it can demonstrably improve safety for the people using it.

That shift from product specification to measurable outcome is at the heart of Value-Based Procurement.

Explore more from the Value-Based Procurement series

This article is part of DDC’s Value-Based Procurement series, exploring how the NHS guidance can be applied to real-world healthcare procurement decisions.

From staff safety and infection prevention to operational efficiency and whole-life value, the series looks at how organisations can assess medical technology based on the outcomes it can deliver, rather than purchase price alone.

Explore the Value Based Procurement series