Decontamination Assistant (Sterile services)

Job overview

Join a vital team at Bedford Hospital where your work directly supports safe, high-quality patient care.

As a Decontamination Assistant, you will play a key role in ensuring reusable medical devices — including endoscopes — are cleaned, disinfected, and sterilised to the highest standards. Working within both the Sterile Services Department and the Endoscope Decontamination Unit, you will follow strict ISO‑accredited policies, procedures, and work instructions to maintain safety, compliance, and excellence.

This is a hands-on and essential role where attention to detail and teamwork are critical. You will support all decontamination-related duties, ensuring clinical teams have safe, ready-to-use equipment at all times while adhering to departmental standards across all areas.

The successful candidate will be committed to delivering a safe, compliant, and high-quality service for all customers and stakeholders. You will be motivated, adaptable, and flexible with working hours, including weekends, and demonstrate a willingness to undertake all training required to excel in the role.

At Bedford Hospital, our priority is to provide the standard of care we would expect for our own loved ones. We are dedicated to creating a supportive and rewarding workplace, ensuring we have the right people in the right roles to deliver outstanding patient care and experience.

This is a full-time position working Tuesday to Friday from 14:00 to 22:00, and Saturday from 12:00 to 20:00.

Main duties of the job

The Decontamination Service at Bedford Hospital NHS Trust comprises the Sterile Services Department and the Endoscopy Decontamination Unit. Both areas are responsible for supplying sterile and disinfected reusable medical devices to wards, departments and theatres across the Trust. This work includes the collection, decontamination, preparation, packing, sterilisation or disinfection, and distribution of reusable medical devices.

Key duties include:

• Receiving, sorting and preparing reusable medical devices, including endoscopes, for cleaning and disinfection.
• Inspecting, re‑assembling, function‑testing, packaging, sealing and labelling devices that have been successfully washed, disinfected and dried.
• Conducting independent checks of instrument trays prepared by others, ensuring all contents are correct and reporting any discrepancies.
• Maintaining an understanding of the basic types and categories of instruments and flexible scopes, recognising their functions and identifying key inspection and testing points.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

The Job Description and Person Specification are attached to this vacancy; please review them for full details and responsibilities.

• Inspecting instruments and equipment on receipt into the decontamination area and at various stages of production, storage and distribution, and immediately reporting any damaged or missing items or components.
• Dismantling and assembling instrumentation in line with manufacturers’ recommendations following the cleaning and disinfection process.
• Ensuring all packaging, wrapping and labelling of instrument sets and supplementary items is completed in accordance with legislation, guidance and service requirements.
• Maintaining an understanding of the different sterilisation and disinfection methods used, and recognising the importance of product liability in relation to the re‑use of medical devices.
• Carrying out quality checks to confirm that devices have been correctly decontaminated and are safe for patient use.
• Taking appropriate action if there is any doubt about the effectiveness of the decontamination process, and reporting or documenting any failures to the Decontamination Services Manager

Applicant requirements

The postholder will have access to vulnerable people in the course of their normal duties and as such this post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (Amendment) (England and Wales) Order 2020 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service to check for any previous criminal convictions.