Sustainability
Bowen, the Clinical Lead for Interventional Cardiology at InHealth Group, aimed at reducing the carbon emissions associated with single- use procedure packs. Following a conversation with the third-party provider, Kimal (who shared her passion for sustainability), this issue was addressed. The aim of the project was to increase the knowledge and awareness of staff on the impact of hard plastics and seek a low carbon alternative to reduce the environmental impact of single-use packs. Items were swapped with low carbon
alternatives. As an example, the swap of one kidney dish for a low carbon alternative, Kimal- wide, was estimated to be the equivalent of 17.43 tonnes CO2
e per year. Staff awareness of
the impacts of hard plastics and single-use procedure packs also increased with a ripple effect of the team identifying new quality improvement projects.
Reducing surgical site infection Debbie Price, a Senior Nurse ODP, at Nuffield Health York Hospital, highlighted a project that targeted infection prevention to reduce carbon footprint. Following surgical procedures, patients often return to the outpatient department for wound checks. Occasionally, these wounds become infected. Poor nutritional status has a profound impact on the host immune response and makes the patient more susceptible to post-operative infection. Patients are unaware of the impact that nutrition has on wound healing. Therefore, improving nutritional status is paramount to good patient outcomes and reducing carbon footprint caused through infection that increases bed days. Debbie calculated that the environmental impact of reducing just one infection was
Brittany Bowen (centre), Clinical Lead for Interventional Cardiology at InHealth Group, is striving to reduce the carbon emissions associated with single-use procedure packs
a saving equivalent to 667kgCO2 e – equal to
the growth of 31 mature trees in one year. Ultimately, reducing post-surgical wounds by promoting good nutrition will help to heal wounds in a timelier manner, reduce carbon emissions associated with inpatient stay, improve patient satisfaction and outcomes, and reduce financial costs associated with infection.
Winner of the FNF scholarship From the cohort of 18 nurses, one was singled-out to go forward with a prestigious ‘Florence Nightingale Foundation scholarship’. At the celebration event, Rachael Brown, an Infection Prevention Nurse at Nuffield Health Warwickshire Hospital, was awarded with a scholarship for her sustainable healthcare project that has reduced the use of couch covers at Nuffield Health Warwickshire Hospital. The scholarship will enable Rachael to invest more time into developing her project and implementing it at scale.
“Couch covers (also known as blue-roll covers)
are widely available in outpatient, physiotherapy and pre-assessment areas within healthcare sites,” Rachael explained. “From an infection prevention point of view, they serve little purpose. We have now reduced them across our hospital, working with the different hospital teams such as physiotherapy and outpatients. I estimate this could save over seven trees, cut clinical waste of 1,777 kg, and reduce carbon emissions of 4,861 kgC02
e per year at our one
hospital. This can be potentially scaled up across Nuffield Health’s other hospitals, fitness and primary care facilities,” she added. The projected cost savings, from making
these changes at the Nuffield Health Warwickshire Hospital, are estimated to be £3,900 per year. However, when scaled up across the Nuffield Health Group, the cost savings are expected to total £87,217 per year. The saving in blue roll/couch covers, is estimated to be the equivalent of 55 miles of paper per year, at the one hospital, or 1,500 across the group. After joining the programme, Rachael’s
project has had a wider impact at her hospital and across Nuffield Health. The estimated savings in clinical waste across the group is an impressive 46,118 kg per year, and a reduction in carbon of 92,374 kgCO2
e per year. “I shared my project with other infection
prevention and control leads at Nuffield Health’s National Infection Prevention Day and I’m now working with our primary care leads about removing couch covers across Nuffield Health’s primary care services,” Rachael commented. “This has massive potential for the future
Rachael Brown, an Infection Prevention Nurse from Nuffield Health Warwickshire Hospital, (centre) was the winner of the FNF scholarship. Her project reduced the use of ‘blue roll’ covers.
and there is so much other work we can do. Infection prevention nurses, as a group, have historically driven single use, but we need to work to change that,” she continued. “The beauty of this project was its simplicity. There was
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