Introduction to Instruments (Open LEARNING Zone) (Report‪)‬

Introduction Most perioperative departments are provided with instruments and other sterile sundries from a sterile services unit, which may be on or off site. The sets will be marked according to their purpose, for example laparotomy tray, hand tray, minor ENT etc, and will have supporting tracking and traceability labels. These labels should be removed and entered into the patient's notes and/or theatre register, in accordance with local policy. It is an essential element of patient safety that all sets and/or supplementary instruments used in a procedure are tracked so that patients can be identified if it is subsequently necessary to do so (NATN 2000, AfPP 2007).