At ProPodiatry, we take your health and safety seriously.
This ranges to everything from ensuring that our surroundings are clean and safe for all to use, to making sure that we clean your feet with Clinisept+ before treatment to remove any bacteria, to making sure that we only use sterile instruments every time.
Our instrument sterilisation occurs in house – let me walk you through the process!
First, our used instruments are collected together after use from 1 patient. Sometimes, if there is risk of cross contamination, we will use more than 1 set / item per person.
After this, we will scrub them, to remove any debris from previous treatments. This makes sure that there is no physical sign of debris remaining, making sure we get the cleaning process off to a great start.
Then, the science begins! We put our instruments into an Ultrasonic cleaning machine, with specialist instrument cleaner. This will break up and remove any debris or dust that is tightly stuck to the instruments that physical scrubbing doesn’t clean. It’s amazing what this machine can still take off after a good scrub!
We will then rinse off the instruments, as the instrument cleaner makes them rust very quickly. Then, we package them up, and into the steriliser they go! Instruments go into the table-top autoclave, pre-packaged, at 134 degrees centigrade – a bit blinking hot! An autoclave is a specialist bit of equipment that uses pressurised steam to make sure that any germs are fully killed off, making sure they are ready to go for next time.
The fact that they are packaged before going into the autoclave means that once they have been sterilised, they don’t need to be touched again until they are used – ensuring they stay sterile until they come into contact with your freshly prepped feet! We package our nail care sets together so that we have everything ready to go for a standard nail cut in 1 kit, and then we have individually wrapped instruments for specialist treatments as well.
If the instruments haven’t been used after some time, or the pouches have become damaged, then we will sterilise them again in fresh pouches, to ensure that they are sterile when they are used.
As a practice, we make sure the highest cleanliness practices are always adhered to. We are aware that we are using sharp instruments, and thus a small break in the skin is always possible – no matter how skilled a clinician is. Furthermore, fungal infections can be passed from patient to patient with non-sterile equipment. We take all measures that we can to ensure that infections are prevented. This is one of the many things that differentiates foot care with a Podiatrist vs foot care with a Beautician.
So – now you know a bit of what goes on behind the scenes in keeping you safe and infection-free!