National and International health experts said there is no sterile system in Pakistan's small hospitals nor do they know the standard way to clean the equipment from the effects of infection.

Experts said while addressing a seminar titled "Cleaning and Sterilization Process in Healthcare Facilities" at the Ojha campus of Dow University of Health Sciences. The speakers included Pro-Vice Chancellor of Dow University Prof Zarnaz Wahid, Andreas Schiender, Mrs Peter albonet Head of Clinical Academy Borer Kemi, Shaukat Ali and Mohammad Rizwan. More than 300 staff from public and private hospitals across the city was invited to the seminar.

Experts said that since Pakistan was among the developing countries and healthcare facilities were not well accessed to the common people, it was due to lack of awareness among the people and the disadvantages caused by it.

Experts say that excluding the large setup hospitals, the exact method of sterilization was not used in any other hospital. Moreover, no hospital in Pakistan releases infection rates to detect at which stage the disinfection process is lacking. Since, the medical devices and equipment are reprocessed, the technical staff must be properly introduced to them.

Experts also added that there should be a SOP for medical device reprocessing, which should be approved by the Ministry of Health who may visit the hospitals regularly to check and allow the hospital to work or stop when it does not provide the required facilities so that they may adhere to the standards the Ministry of Health has established and help prevent germs and diseases.

Sterilization services had an important role in surgery in healthcare, experts said. Reused medical devices in the hospital are reprocessed in the same department, called CSSD. All the surgeries in any hospital depend on these devices. That is why we have organized this seminar today, so that all the relevant staff should be specialized in their work, therefore training of this department is very important.

All the people in this department are highly skilled around the world and are usually diploma holders. Unfortunately, there is no diploma or training programme on health care sterilization in Pakistan, but training courses have been started in private hospitals in Sindh and Punjab, which is insufficient.

Short courses should be started in this field; while, the American College of Surgeons had decided in 1940 to establish this department. Experts said that the OT and nursing staff have a lot of service in this department, but sadly, no significant importance was given to this department, nor did it progress despite the importance of this department.

For this reason, the related staff is also given less compensation in Pakistan, which makes the future of this department no worse. Experts added that the requirement has been made that in Pakistan, the department should be in line with international standards, that any education, diploma or training program should be introduced at the government level so that we can help reach the standard of our workers at international criteria. If we did not pay attention to this department, we would never be able to create an "infection-free Pakistan".-PR