Health / ‘Very low risk’ to patients after sterilisation data issue at dental practice
AN INVESTIGATION has ruled that there was a very low risk to patients following an issue with the record-keeping of a sterilisation machine at the Lerwick Dental Practice.
The NHS Shetland health protection team assessed how likely it may have been that dental instruments were contaminated with blood-borne viruses, such as hepatitis B and C, and HIV, after there were missing sterilisation data records due to a memory card fault over a period of around three weeks in 2024.
But the dental practice, on Lerwick’s Market Street, said in a recent letter to patients that there was a “very low risk” that anyone will have acquired a blood-borne virus infection through having a dental appointment.
It said the issue did not indicate a failure with the sterilisation process, with the problem being with data collection.
Its letter to patients explained that dental instruments go through a washing process after they are used, including being sterilised at a high temperature to ensure any remaining viruses or bacteria are killed.
It said that every time the steriliser is used, there is a digital or paper record to show that it worked correctly. However one memory card which contained some records one of the machines’ sterilisation cycles was faulty, with “some data missing”.
This affected records over a period of a few weeks, understood to be between 28 August and 16 September 2024.
The NHS Shetland health protection team was asked to look into the situation and assess if there had been any risk to patients.
They worked with Public Health Scotland to investigate and assess the risk, reviewing the number of people who attended the dental practice who had a history of blood-borne viruses.
It was confirmed that there were a “very small number” of dental patients with a history of hepatitis C and B who attended during the period in question, “but the risk of anyone being infectious was low”.
They also estimated how many others may have had undiagnosed infections, to understand how likely it was that instruments may have been contaminated.
It was ultimately agreed that there was a very low risk to patients, based on a number of factors including the small number of people in Shetland with blood-borne viruses and the fact that all instruments were washed appropriately.
The letter said: “There is no evidence that the sterilisers were not functioning correctly during the period reviewed. When records were available, there was only one occasion where the steriliser was not 100 per cent effective, and the instruments were reprocessed.”
The dental practice said that while the team cannot be 100 per cent certain that the machine was functioning correctly, they have no reason to believe it was not.
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