Could UV-C LEDs light up decontamination?

The NHS has been utilising a combination of washer-disinfectors (WDs) and autoclaves for over 50 years, with obvious industry improvements over time to reduce power and water consumption. They are the accepted 'go-to' solution for sterilisation of reusable surgical equipment from operating theatres, as well as reusable devices that do not require sterilisation. Although some of the most sophisticated WDs and autoclave models now on the market are more efficient than earlier models, many devices installed in NHS hospitals and in daily use consume between 150 and 700 litres of water per cycle.¹ They also consume the same power per cycle as an average UK domestic house uses in a 24-hour period.²

The temperature for thermal disinfection currently is 90 °C3 for 1 minute, or 80 °C for 10 minutes in a WD, and 117 °C (steam) for an autoclave. These temperatures are potentially damaging for certain materials, and contribute to reducing the life of products being subjected to them.

In addition, in the same way that many laundry services were removed from NHS hospital sites (only 10 on-site NHS laundries now exist), many hospitals now outsource their reprocessing to a third-party provider. This involves procuring multiples of the equipment, to support the time taken to transport to and from the provider, as well as the reprocessing time, and this can be a factor of 4 or 10 times the number of items required for daily use, dependent on the turnaround times.