NEWS

The Director General of Health, DR Ashley Bloomfield, and the Chief Allied Health Professions Officer, DR Martin Chadwick, have confirmed a clear forward direction for establishing n a regular quality assurance solution across sterile services within Aotearoa NZ,

This shall be achieved by :

*adopting the revised version of the standalone Australian Sterilization Standard ( as yet not named or released)

*sterile Services to be audited  by the designated Auditing Authority (DAA) as part of the health and Disability standard part 5 Infection prevention and antimicrobial stewardship (DZ8134:2021)

*ensuring Sterile services have duly completed an internal audit in line with the revised Australian standard.

*This shall include all DHB’s having completed a self audit by the end of June 2021.

CRK will follow any changes closely and adopt any changes required within the QMS to ensure it meets and exceeds all NZ requirements.

Both BoP DHB and WrDHB have now confirmed their intent to utilise CRK QMS to achieve their goals for compliance with the standards.

Having both had previous Gap Analysis conducted within their facilities, and despite having other processes in place, they decided that the best option for them was to show initiative, and implement documented systems to show compliance.

We will work closely with them to assist in achieving their goals.

Hutt Valley DHB has become the first DHB in NZ to sign up and adopt the CRK QMS.

After reviewing all the documentation, management and the team inducted the system to an operational environment.

We wish them all the best on their route to compliance with the standards. This will not only improve the process, but have a direct impact on overall patient safety.