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Whitley A55 Anaerobic Workstation Report
Date: 10th February 2015
A report from Southern General Hospital.
The workstation has now been in the department for a full year and has been working well throughout this period. It is a big improvement on the workstations used previously and has resulted in a reduced maintenance cost with the single workstation.
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The projected reduced gas usage has been met and this has lowered the running cost of the workstation compared with previous equipment. Estimated saving £7500 pa on gas costs on changing from anaerobic gas mixture cylinder to anaerobic gas mixture and nitrogen generated from liquid nitrogen.
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The anaerobic atmosphere is well controlled and there has been both an increase in the number of anaerobic isolates and the colony size in general.
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The control organisms have consistently good zone sizes on a day to day basis.
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The airlocks are easy to use and are very quick to cycle thereby allowing the removal/loading of large numbers of plates very efficient.
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The touch pad control is very clear and intuitive of use allowing all routine procedures to be carried out with ease and with minimal training.
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Data logging is good and allows transfer of data from the workstation to an external PC by use of a flash drive. Data that can be monitored and stored externally includes: humidity, oxygen, temperature, chamber pressure and events. This data is stored on the GG&C Microbiology shared drive in the DWS workstation folder.
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The capacity of the workstation for this department is more than adequate and the management of plates within the cabinet is straightforward although a long reach is an advantage.
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Maintenance on a daily, weekly and monthly basis is minimal and very easy to perform.
In conclusion, the DWS A55 Workstation has been an asset to the department in workflow management, its ease of use and performance.
Gordon Mackie
Technical Manager
Southern General Hospital
English