SUSTAINABILITY IN THE NHS
A single-use apron.
and therefore makes it a more attractive proposition.” Currently, he added, there were a lot of people in the deaf community excluded, because they were struggling to obtain transparent face masks.
Ongoing pilots The seven current compliant masks are all the subject of pilots running in England, Scotland, Northern Ireland, and Wales; the team would thereafter be pulling together the resulting information, for example to determine if and how the team-members need to further engage with the manufacturers. Paul Chivers said he had already touched on the agreed suite of approved and accepted decontamination cleaning processes, but added that there was a need to continue with the Innovation Hubs and Roadshows already under way. He explained that on the last Tuesday of each month he hosts a one and half-hour Innovation Hub, where other organisations update attendees on their trials, pilots, and any ‘innovative developments’. He said: “We’ve had a couple discussing hypochlorous gassing of rooms, as opposed to hydrogen peroxide decontamination, we’ve featured sustainable procurement, the MOOC, and glove use reduction.”
‘‘
A reusable apron.
Roadshows Moving to Roadshows, he said: “We’ve got 13 suppliers of PPE above the head, and some cleaning agents. We’ve been to Alder Hey and Birmingham, will be in Chichester in a couple of weeks’ time, and then in Manchester and UCL during November. Subsequently, we’ll hold roadshows in North Tees, Shropshire, and hopefully in Bristol, to get feedback.” He explained that the businesses involved in the Roadshows pay, and that the team then puts the suppliers in the room. “They are allowed to sell nothing,” Paul Chivers stressed. “They’re just there to listen to the users telling them how to improve our PPE now, so that we can then go and produce better PPE for the next generation. Currently – as you’ve seen from the two products I showed earlier – some of them are very much construction-orientated.” He added: “Most of these products are made for what’s called a Sheffield Head, of a 5’11’’ white male. However, the NHS has one of the most diverse populations of any employer worldwide, and these things don’t fit them.” Feedback he had received had included: ‘The P3 slipped off my face.’ That, Paul Chivers said, was ‘part of the
education process’ too. “But it’s also,” he said, “the fact that a lot of these products
When you see the tonnes and tonnes of single- use plastics we’re generating, it makes no sense not to have reusable products. Collectively, the interventions we have talked through could reduce CO2
by 47,000-96,000 tonnes every year
are not made for small Filipino nurses, and people with very narrow faces. So, they’re currently just having to ‘make do’. We take 3-5 years to train a healthcare worker, and then we dress them head to toe in a ‘fiver’; that’s what it costs for a mask, eye protection, a plastic apron, and a pair of gloves.”
A clear ‘end-goal’ The end-goal, Paul Chivers emphasised as his presentation neared its end, was that staff get PPE products that keep them safe, are reusable and sustainable, and designed for them and the environments they’re working in. He added: “So that is what all the roadshows are all about.” Noting that he had already discussed
‘standards and specifications for health and care settings’, he closed by stressing the need to ‘build on the networks’ with organisations including MHRA, HSE, TRA, IPC, RCN, IPS, and WDES. He said: “We do get on very well with them. They are an easy point of contact, and I can drop them a line and get answers quite quickly. So, in my opinion, based on the question for today, and the theme of this event, decontamination is indeed very sustainable. When I saw the question, I was going to ask instead: ‘Is not to decontaminate sustainable?’ When you see the tonnes and tonnes of single-use plastics we’re generating, it makes no sense not to have reusable products. Collectively, the interventions we have talked through could reduce CO2
by
47,000-96,000 tonnes every year.” Here he closed his presentation, and invited questions from the audience.
March 2023 Health Estate Journal 21
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