Posted on 2-August-2018   by Imogen Jones

Heading to France on a research mission

The SF2H Congress is the annual meeting for specialists in the prevention of healthcare-associated infections in France. This year, Daniels’ Export Business Manager Kevin Cundy and International Business Development Co-ordinator Leyla Bal, went along to find out more about infection prevention across the Channel.

We have Kevin & Leyla over @LaSF2H in Monpellier exhibiting our #SHARPSGUARD® and VAT5 ranges. They would love to talk to you about sharps safety and introduce our range to you #SF2H https://t.co/WTnNT5IHMr

— Daniels Healthcare (@DanielsHCareLtd) June 6, 2018

Montpellier’s Le Corum, located in the centre of the city in southern France, is a stunning building that houses both a conference centre and opera house and is covered in slabs of pink marble – a beautiful venue for this years’ SF2H conference (the French equivalent of the UK’s IPS Conference).

Kevin and Leyla represented Daniels at the three-day event in June which featured scientific sessions, practical workshops and training. The 4 major themes of 2018 were:

• Exploring the environment to better control healthcare-associated infections;
• Surgical site infections: lesser known aspects;
• Vaccination: polemics and perspectives;
• Place of the hygienist in the correct use of antibiotics.

You can download the full programme here.

Leyla and Valerie Icord (who also attended from Mauser France) demonstrating how easy it is to operate SHARPSGUARD® with one hand – very important in France

The aim of the trip was to find out more about the French market, understand customer needs and make some new connections.

Kevin said: “With more than 1265 people at the event, it gave us a great opportunity to meet some of the industry leaders in France. It was also great to have face-to-face conversations with frontline, hospital staff from across France and fascinating to hear about the challenges the infection prevention professionals face there.

“One particular take-away was the practice of using plinths to stabilise the container on a work surface. In the UK, there is much more emphasis on the use of wall and trolley brackets and so that’s a key, different way of working. Luckily, we had brought some Daniels’ trays with us so we could demonstrate how they can be used to dispose of sharps at the point of use and we even gave some away for them to try!”.

Kevin was on hand to showcase our products

Leyla added: “Everyone knows the Daniels brand in the UK but we aren’t as well-known across the Channel. Attending such a high profile, international event allowed us to introduce our products to a new market. The delegates were particularly impressed by the temporary closure on the lid, which is considerably easier to use than the containers they currently use.

“We were also interested to hear that different coloured lids were of less importance to end users, as the waste is not segregated in the same way as the UK, the orange colour of our export range lid really seemed to go down very well.”

“We’ll be following up with the contacts we made at SF2H over the next few weeks and hope to start some fruitful, new relationships with the industry in France.”

Our French-speaking Leyla on the Daniels stand

We’d love to hear which conferences you’re attending this year or if you have any insights into infection prevention in France. Let us know about your favourite industry events and any top-tips on Twitter @DanielsHCareLtd , Facebook or LinkedIn.

Imogen Jones

Imogen is the Product Manager for our SHARPSGUARD® range, and our Marketing Manager for the UK & Ireland.