Swissmedic finds hygiene failures in Swiss hospitals

Swissmedic, Switzerland’s medicines institute, found shortcomings in the cleaning and sterilisation of medical devices during inspections of hospitals, SRF reported. The causes included insufficiently qualified staff and inadequate infrastructure.

Swissmedic carried out 28 inspections at 26 Swiss hospitals and two service companies. The inspections covered the reprocessing and maintenance of medical devices, as well as systems for recording and reporting serious incidents involving them.

The identified weaknesses affected the cleaning, disinfection and sterilisation of medical devices in reprocessing units and endoscopy departments. Swissmedic said it found no signs of an acute risk to patients. In some cases, however, it ordered immediate measures to ensure the safety of the devices.

Swissmedic also said several hospitals had independently introduced measures to improve product safety, indicating that market surveillance had a preventive effect.