All hospital equipment is either single-use or reusable. Single-use equipment should not be reused and should be discarded appropriately after use. All reusable equipment must be decontaminated between use and between patients. Infection can be spread via inadequately decontaminated items.

Equipment will need cleaning and/or disinfection or sterilisation. The choice of decontamination method will depend on the risk of infection associated with the equipment.

Regardless of use, any equipment must, as a minimum, be cleaned between patients.

Cleaning is an essential pre- requisite of any disinfection or sterilisation process. BSL4.