Sterile Services Technician

Job overview

Are you passionate about ensuring the highest standards of safety and effectiveness in healthcare? Do you thrive in a dynamic environment where your expertise can make a real difference? If so, we have the perfect opportunity for you!

We are looking for an enthusiastic applicant who wants to work in the challenging, changing world of sterilisation and decontamination within the Sterile Services Department (SSD) at Horton General Hospital, part of Oxford University Hospital Trust.

We are a small, friendly team committed to high standards and meeting the needs of our customers in this critical area. We clean, decontaminate, and sterilise reusable surgical instruments and equipment to support the Trust in providing surgical care for our patients. We work closely with our operating theatres and wards to provide safe, sterile surgical instruments and equipment within the required timeframes. We are accredited to ISO 13485 and constantly seek to maintain and improve our quality standards.

Therefore, we are looking for a hard-working, confident, and capable individual who wants to work in a busy but friendly environment where staff take real pride in what they do.

VBI and technical interview will be held for this post

Main duties of the job

We are looking for a Sterile Services Technician who can work equally well in a team or independently, without supervision. You must have strong literacy and numeracy skills, good communication skills, be well organised, and work well under pressure.

The post holder will start as a Decontamination Technician (Band 2) -- with a clear pathway to progress to Decontamination Technician (Band 3) through our structured internal training and competency programme. This is a link-grade role, meaning you will start at Band 2 and, upon successful completion of our in-house training and full sign-off of your competency portfolio, you will be promoted to Band 3.

As a Band 2 Decontamination Technician, you will:

Support the safe and effective reprocessing of reusable medical devices. Work under supervision to clean, disinfect, inspect, assemble, and sterilise surgical instruments. Operate within a quality-controlled environment, adhering to Standard Operating Procedures and the Quality Management System. Be part of a team that plays a vital role in patient safety and infection prevention.

As a Band 3 decontamination technician, you will:

Take on more complex tasks including robotic device processing. Provide guidance and training to new assistants. Work with greater autonomy and contribute to service development. The main tasks include cleaning, disassembly, checking, packing, sterilising, and moving surgical instruments to ensure safe reprocessing and distribution for use in theatres and other clinical departments.

You will be a valued member of our team. While previous experience in Sterile Services and decontamination practices would be desirable, we will provide full training in all aspects of the department and ISO13485:2016 quality systems.

This role involves a lot of heavy lifting / manual handling, exposure to blood and bodily fluids, and working with chemicals and machinery. There is no involvement with patients.

The post holder will need to demonstrate flexibility in their approach to cover shift variations to meet the ever-changing demands of the Service Users.

The department is open:

Monday – Friday 08.00 – 20.00

On-call duties: Saturday & Bank Holidays 8.00 - 16.00

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

To work with the management & supervisor to meet the production needs of the department & customers.

To comply with all local policies and procedures.

To check that all equipment is present and correct.

Report any discrepancies to the customer and the department manager/supervisor immediately.

Complete the relevant documents for any non-conformances.

Wash and decontaminate instruments according to the department's policies and procedures, particularly Health and Safety and Infection Control.

Identify surgical instruments belonging to different specialities.

Process instruments for theatres and other departments in accordance with work instructions, standard operating procedures, and fast-track lists.

To ensure that packs are clearly identified using the bar-coded traceability system.

The post holder will work as a member of the Sterile Service team, carrying out duties related to providing decontaminated surgical instruments and flexible scopes for the Horton Hospital theatre and external customers.

The post is 37.5 hours per week. During the training period, a dedicated training mentor will be assigned to the successful applicant at all times. Once fully competent in all duties and responsibilities, the post holder will be required to take a flexible approach to covering on-call duties, including Bank Holidays and Weekends.

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.