Single-use and multiple-use of Medical Devices
Paper by Dr Mike Simmons (Chair of All Wales decontamination and sterilization advisory group), Pete Phillips (Director of SMTL) and Matthew Alderman (Operations manager, SMTL).
The All Wales Decontamination and Sterilization Advisory Group have been asked on a number of occasions to provide advice regarding single use items. The questions are generally:
- Does single-use imply single use within a determined period of time on more than one patient?
- Can the device be used more than once on a single patient?
This paper [PDF] attempts to answer these questions and give some advice in this area.