HI
I am currently in discussions with my Trust about the introduction of single use Chloraprep sticks throughout our theatres to replace 2% chlorhexidine following the 2019 NICE guidance around surgical site infections. I wondered if any of you had encountered a drive to simply stop ordering chlorhexidine on the basis of that Chloraprep is the only prep licensed for single patient use which is what is very appealing to our Infection Control team; the impact of our current use of chlorhex prep is not what is driving the conversion but a recent issue with pooling of chlorhexidine has addded weight to the argument
I am concerned that the drivers for this change have not fully factored in the environmental cost of lollipops and teh single use sponges for skin prep rather than the use of shared sprays and wondered if I might find support within the network to come back to the next meeting with a broader view on this. I feel that the 'single use' marketing is influencing IC groups without robust evidence that any change results in less infections
Thank you!
Emma
Hi Emma,
Thanks for posting - on the face of it, it certainly sounds very wasteful. I am a surgeon at St Thomas's Hospital (in the Evelina) and haven't had to use them there. So I might not be much help. However, I will find out if they do get used in our Trust and whether we have any policy on prep. It would be interesting to see the difference given the close proximity of our respective hospital trusts!
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