A new aseptic unit is to be built within St Bernard’s Hospital so patients can continue to benefit  from chemotherapy medication, and be able to expand to other services. 

A statement from the GHA follows below:

The aseptic unit will  provide additional physical production capacity and improve the drug manufacturing process to  meet increasing demand for aseptic services from the local community. Staff will be able to  continue to prepare ready-to-administer chemotherapy drugs, as well as intravenous nutrition  and antibiotics. 

The new unit provides an aseptic environment of higher standards with specialist equipment and  a dedicated team to provide safe and high quality injectable medications to meet the demands of  our population. The unit will comply with Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency  (MHRA) standards, and is designed to accommodate more isolator units than we currently have,  to be able to increase production in the future and have as contingency too. 

Melanie Gordon, Chief Pharmacist said, ‘We are delighted to be announcing the construction of  the new aseptic unit. This development is a significant step forward in our capacity to produce  other aseptically pre-prepared medicines alongside the chemotherapy agents. It will allow the  team to manufacture high quality products whilst also maintaining the safety of the staff working  within the unit.’