Sustainability
Government announces ‘crackdown on NHS waste’
A new strategy is being published to radically cut the number of single-use medical devices in the health service. The Design for Life programme aims to reduce waste and achieve an NHS-wide move to sustainable alternatives.
The Government is launching a major crackdown on waste in the NHS to save millions of pounds a year, helping to divert more resources to frontline care. A new strategy - The Design for Life Roadmap – has been published to radically cut the number of single-use medical devices in the health service and reduce reliance on foreign imports.
Disposable medical devices substantially contribute to the 156,000 tonnes of clinical waste that the NHS produces every year in England alone. The roadmap paves the way to cutting this waste and maximising reuse, remanufacture and recycling in the NHS. According to the Government, doing so will create thousands more UK jobs and help transform the country into a life sciences superpower. As it stands, millions of devices, such as walking aids and surgical instruments, are thrown away after just one use. For example, harmonic shears each cost more than £500 and around 90% are binned after a single use. Innovative companies are already purchasing these used devices and safely remanufacturing them at a lower price. The Government says it will encourage
more of this kind of innovation to safely remanufacture a wider range of products and drive costs down, including by changing procurement rules to incentivise reusable products and rolling out examples where hospitals are already leading the way on cutting wasteful spending and practices. The Government says that approximately £10 billion each year is spent on medical
technology like this, in the NHS, but too much of it is imported via vulnerable routes that risk disrupting patient care. A Circular Economy Taskforce has already been created to foster more highly skilled green jobs and smarter use of resources. An economy-wide shift to a circular economy could add £75 billion to the economy and create 500,000 jobs by 2030, according to the Government’s calculations. Health and Social Care Secretary, Wes
Every year, millions of expensive medical devices are chucked in the bin after being used just once. We are going to work closely with our medical technology industry, to eliminate waste and support homegrown MedTech and equipment. Wes Streeting, Health and Social Care Secretary.
Streeting, said: “The NHS is broken. It is the mission of this Government to get it back on its feet, and we can’t afford a single penny going to waste. Because the NHS deals in the billions, too often it doesn’t think about the millions. That has to change. This Government inherited a £22 billion black hole in the public finances, so we will have a laser-like focus on getting better value for taxpayers’ money. “Every year, millions of expensive medical
devices are chucked in the bin after being used just once. We are going to work closely with our medical technology industry, to eliminate waste and support homegrown MedTech and equipment.” The below case studies illustrate the potential
savings: l Mid Yorkshire Trust uses 330,000 single-use tourniquets in a year, but a single reusable tourniquet can be used 10,000 times. In a one-year trial, reusable alternatives saved
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