Written & Peer Reviewed by Industry Experts

Beverley Mitton

BA (Hons)

Beverley has worked in the decontamination industry for over 14 years. Working within private decontamination supercentres and manufacturers of sterile barriers.

She trained at the Aesculap Academy in Germany and has a wealth of knowledge in decontamination processes and many other areas of the industry including medical instrumentation, quality assurance, track & trace systems, data analysis, data management and training.

Beverley joined Isopharm in November 2020 as the Laboratory and Training Sales Manager. She brings her training background to manage the Isopharm iLearn training platform. She is also a member of the IDSc and CSC, and the IDSc Secretary for the Yorkshire and Trent Branch.

Mark Lavery

MIDSc (Chtd)

Mark has over 40 years experience in Decontamination and began his career as a CSSD Assistant at the Northern General Hospital Sheffield in 1980. He has worked for a number of NHS Trusts and also the Private Sector in decontamination.

In 1996 Mark was appointed Sterile Service Manager for the Lothian University Hospitals NHS Trust and successfully managed the merger for three hospitals to a single facility. The Sterile Services Organisation in Edinburgh became the first in Scotland to be accredited to the then BS5750 Quality system, and Mark became the Quality Lead for City Hospital. Whilst working in Edinburgh, Mark became part of the Scottish National Decontamination Audit team led by David Hurrell.

Mark was appointed Pan Glasgow Head of Decontamination with responsibility for the six sterile service departments in the city, and for the planning, and commissioning of the Cowlairs Central Decontamination unit. The unit won awards for innovation and was the world’s largest Decontamination unit at that time.

After gaining commercial experience in the Private Sector, Mark returned to the NHS as Trust Decontamination Lead for a joint collaboration of the Royal Cornwall Hospitals NHS Trust and University Hospitals Plymouth, and he is now the substantive Decontamination Lead to Plymouth hospitals. He has implemented a qualification and competence focussed re-structuring initiative with the emphasis on staff retention, career development, research, and succession management. Mark has developed a Trust Wide Decontamination approach to support staff in non-centralised locations who may be required to decontaminate medical devices in non-centralised locations.

Mark has also formed a Technical forum/workshop which meets quarterly in order to identify and share best decontamination practice across the South West Peninsula. Mark is a Chartered member of the IDSc and a member of the Central Sterilising Club. He has presented at many National and International Decontamination conferences.

John Prendergast

Authorised Engineer (Decontamination)

John Prendergast is a Senior Decontamination Engineer working within the specialist team at NHS Wales Shared Services Partnership/Specialist Estates Services, that is dedicated to all aspects of decontamination/reprocessing techniques of medical devices. John is a member of a team that provides validation services, advice and guidance to Health Boards/Trusts within Wales and works closely with Welsh governmental departments to deliver policy and strategy in this unique and often complex field.

John has worked within the NHS in Wales for the past 35 years and was initially employed by Gwent Health Authority (currently Aneurin Bevan University Health Board) as an engineer working within the Works and Estates department.

John joined Welsh Health Estates in 2000 and undertook a more global role working throughout all the acute NHS heath-care facilities within Wales. His role has developed to encompass all aspects of decontamination of medical devices to include Sterile services, Endoscopy and Primary care.

In 2012 he completed the ACIST course (qualifying course for Authorised Engineer – Decontamination) and was formally accepted onto the IHEEM register as an Authorised Engineer (Decontamination) late 2013.

John’s participation as part of the peer review group for this project is independent of his work within the NHS. All comments are submitted from personal experiences and do not reflect policies of his employer or the wider NHS within Wales.

Tony Sullivan

IDSc MChtd, MIHEEM, MIPS, AP(D)

Served in the Royal Air Force (RAF) as an Aircraft Electrical Engineer for 23 years (79 – 02). On leaving the RAF, Tony joined Lancer UK as a Service Engineer, acquiring full test person qualifications on Washer Disinfectors, Endoscope Washer Disinfectors and Porous Load Sterilisers. Tony took over as Service Manager for Lancer UK, a position he held until Lancer UK were acquired by Getinge. He served as Service Customer Care and Compliance Manager for Getinge, during this time also studied and obtained his Degree in Decontamination in 2014.

Tony joined the NHS November 2015 as Sterile Services Manager at Cumberland Infirmary, 2016 became head of Medical Engineering and Decontamination for North Cumbria University Trust.

He transferred to Durham and Darlington Trust as Decontamination Manager in 2017 and served there for two years. Then during Covid, an opportunity came up to head up an External Environmental Decontamination team to train staff in a wide variety of venues in how to combat the Covid virus, culminating in Managing the Decontamination teams at the Commonwealth games.

Tony has recently completed terms of office for IDSc as Director of Communications and Interim Chairperson. He is still a member of the IDSc Education team.

Tony has recently started his own company All Things Decontamination (ATD) Ltd.

Kate Still

MIDSc (Chtd)

After 20 years in the Fire Service Kate joined the NHS in 2004 at Dorset County Hospital.

She worked as an operational manager and service manager across a range of surgical specialties which quickly led her to have an interest and understanding of the work undertaken by sterile services technicians. Kate always encouraged surgeons to visit SSD to appreciate the work behind the scenes that enabled them to do their surgical work in theatres!

Kate moved to the role of SSD Deputy Manager in 2015 and was involved in merging the SSD and Endoscopy Decontamination teams into one decontamination service. In 2017 Kate became the Decontamination Services Manager and in 2018 the Decontamination Lead for the Trust. 

Kate has a strong background in regulatory compliance and maintaining effective quality management systems. She has led her team to ongoing certification to ISO 13485:2016 and a recent successful transition from MDD to MDR accreditation. 

Kate has always been an advocate for continued staff training and development and was impressed with the online training platform provided by Isopharm and was thrilled to be approached to become involved in course writing and peer reviews. 

Kate is a Chartered Member of the IDSc. 

Bolton Surgical

Bolton Surgical are manufacturers, suppliers, and distributors of a wide range of innovative products and services with decades of experience providing solutions within the surgical and decontamination fields.

They manufacture surgical instruments and provide a repair and maintenance service for many specialist instrument types including laparoscopic instruments, arthroscopy rongeurs, and rigid and semi rigid telescopes. They also have an extensive refurbishment programme.

Their wealth of knowledge will provide training content for our technician level courses to support your staff with their ongoing training and development provided by iLearn.

Gerry Morrow

Gerry was a full-time GP and senior partner at a small, rural, award winning practice for over 20 years. During that time, he developed an expertise in evidenced-based medicine and patient involvement.

For the past 11 years he has been medical director at Agilio Software. He has published widely on a diverse range of topics including shared care, mortality review, and evidence-based prescribing.

He edits Clinical Knowledge Summaries published by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE). He has written and edited many of our e-learning topics across Agilio divisions.

He has presented at national and international events on clinical quality improvement methodology and clinical decision support tools.

He is also a non-executive director at the North East Ambulance Service, where he chairs the technology committee.

Ross Ferguson

Ross has been a pharmacist for over 25 years, he is faculty member of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society, and has worked at Agilio Software for seven years where he is now Deputy Editor and Lead Pharmacist. He authors Clinical Knowledge Summaries (CKS) for the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), as well as a range of e-learning materials and other useful content for primary care professionals.

He has worked extensively in pharmacy publishing for numerous national titles and set up and managed his own community pharmacy. During this time, he was the lead pharmacist for the locality, sat on local health board committees, a contractors' committee, and a national pharmacy advisory board.

His book, Pharmacy Management of Long-term Medical Conditions was recently published by the Pharmaceutical Press.

Sharon Fox

MBA, MIDSc (Chtd)

Sharon started her career in Decontamination in 1991 and has taken a leading role in the Delivery, Contractual and Financial Management of Decontamination Services for both Private and NHS Healthcare providers.

Sharon is currently Head of Decontamination for UHB, managing sterile services third party contract provision for 64 Theatres and 4 Decontaminations units for flexible endoscopes.

Sharon is a strong supporter of continued staff training and development. IDSc Midlands Branch Chairperson & Council Representative.

Jim Brown

MIDSc (Chtd)

Jim began a career with Decontamination in 1986 in Sheffield, becoming the departmental manager within 10 years.

Jim is currently Capital Sales Manager at STERIS, which is a leading provider of infection prevention and other procedural products and services. This role utilizes his expertise as an operational manager to assist in the replacement of industry leading washer disinfector and sterilization equipment.

Jim has worked in both NHS and the commercial sector and was a member of the Organisation of Health Decontamination audit team, which undertook a nationwide assessment of decontamination services. He has held Decontamination Management roles at Chesterfield Royal Hospital and Durham and Darlington NHS Trusts and Decontamination Lead role at the Royal Free in London.

Jim is an active member of the Institute of Decontamination Sciences (IDSc), to which he is a Member (Chartered). He is the Yorkshire and Trent Branch Council Representative and is the Chair of the IDSc Technical Certificate marking panel.

David Hill

PGCert MDD.

David trained as a manufacturing & production engineer at the National Engineering Laboratory in East Kilbride and worked there between 1979 and 1990.

He spent a short time working for MoD in Glasgow before being appointed as a test engineer for NHS Scotland in 1990.

He progressed to become Manager of Validation and Projects by 2003, with his team carrying out validation of the full range of medical device decontamination equipment throughout NHS Scotland.

David also steered his team through two UKAS accreditations to EN ISO 17025 for testing and calibration and developed strong quality management skills under this role as well as subsequently through working as an assessor for UKAS.

In 2003 to 2009, while working for Health Facilities Scotland, David developed an NHS Scotland AER annual validation programme bringing this complex area dealing with high level disinfection under a managed assurance process.

David joined NHS Lothian in 2014 to support decontamination related projects they were working on and is now a Senior Professional Project Manager there.

David is a Chartered Member of IDSc and is also a mentor for students undertaking the IDSc Technical Certificate.

David’s participation as part of the peer review group for this project is independent of his work within the NHS. All comments are submitted from personal experiences and do not reflect policies of his employer or the wider NHS within Scotland.

David Brighton

BA, MA (Hons)

Dave joined Isopharm in 2008 after 10 years as a store manager for a high street chain.

Since then he has developed contacts throughout the decontamination and validation industry, and has experience of a wide range of machines and test equipment used across different applications. He has an in-depth knowledge of TQSoft and IPReports, helping engineers create testing protocols for their individual requirements, as well as providing training and ongoing support for users of the software.

Dave has also worked closely with a number of machine manufacturers to develop bespoke testing and reporting solutions, and with over 10 years’ experience in decontamination process validation at Isopharm, Dave is a regular contact for CP(D)’s and AP(D)’s looking for a point of view.

Ian Mein

MSc Medical Microbiology, FRSPH, MWMSOC, MCSC

Ian started his career working as a laboratory microbiologist for a chemical manufacturer providing water and surface testing, biocidal efficacy testing, and product R&D for detergents & disinfectants. I subsequently moved into the field; for the same company, working as a cleaning and hygiene specialist providing training and consultancy for their clients in the food industry. This involved working to enhance and assess the cleaning and hygiene practices for the removal of biofilms, CIP and RO / UF filtration plant disinfection.

Following a sabbatical in East Asia and Australasia, Ian moved into the laboratory sector specialising in water and air quality. Ian spent 10 years working for Latis Scientific and gained considerable experience regarding the monitoring of microbial contamination and understanding the risk associated with air quality and water quality within the built environment especially in the realm of healthcare and decontamination.

In 2016 Ian started Southsea STS Limited to work with new technology and help companies manage their microbial and chemical risk through accurate monitoring. Southsea STS provides services to a range of sectors including healthcare, utilities, large industrial and commercial properties.

Ian has subsequently spent the last 4 years helping to develop the laboratory business at Isopharm which is now one of the largest laboratories provided to the decontamination sciences sector in the UK; providing quality laboratory services and consultancy.