Healthcare technology
with a biopolymer, so the final product may actually be ‘carbon positive’ – the equivalent to planting trees. The equivalent estimate for ‘everything else’ is Scope 2 Plus Net Zero, and yet it is only worth 10% procurement weighting. “All of that work for just 10%!” he exclaimed.
“We are talking about reaching Net Zero by 2030 and, from a medical device point of view, it’s not going to happen,” Simon continued.
Green procurement decision support tool He highlighted a paper by Clare Nash, a Sustainable Procurement Nurse, and Head of Clinical Procurement at Sandwell & West Birmingham NHS Trust. A clinical entrepreneur with an interest in sustainability, Clare conceived a green procurement decision support tool.2
She
identified the need for a tool that took a deeper dive into a product’s life cycle, without needing to undertake a longer, more complex evaluation, aimed at nurses making everyday decisions in procuring for Net Zero aims. “This could be either an app or an online webpage, and would link directly into Atamis and Evergreen,”3
Simon explained. “It would be
independent and completely open source, so free at the point of use, just like the NHS. Interestingly, it would be paid for by the manufacturers and the costs would be relatively small, about £100 per device, plus the VAT, and this would provide a list of every medical device available.” For those wanting to make a sustainable
procurement decision, the tool would function like a white goods energy rating sticker – in this case, indicating how a device performs on sustainability. It is currently at the development stage. “So, what can you do to help? Well, you can certainly lobby for sustainable choices – you can start talking about sustainability, or at least have it on the agenda and ask: what are we doing
Saving lives sustainably
Bristol based, sustainable medical device company, Airway Medical, has a mission to ‘Save Lives Sustainably’. Medical clinicians and carers frequently use suctioning devices to clear respiratory blockages and/or excess saliva or sputum which cannot be swallowed by the patient (dysphagia), typically in chronic conditions. Currently portable suction is done with expensive, bulky, complex, electrical pumps (EB Suction), made entirely from (>500) finite resource components. A study has shown the energy used in
powering EB suction units for just one use case (COPD) is 3964 Tonnes CO2/Yr (*CO2
about sustainability? This isn’t necessarily about the end of life of old equipment; this is about the start point. So, when we’re looking at procuring things, are we looking at the sustainability of not only that device but the company itself; are the engineers driving around in electric vehicles, for example? “Be open to innovation and novel approaches
– so, if I turned up on your doorstep and said: ‘I’ve got this device, it’s one gram of CO2
versus
twenty-three and a half Kilos’, just spend some time talking to me, being interested about that. Let’s open up the debate. I think that’s something that you could do relatively easily – to collaborate with people like myself and lots of other people that are looking at sustainability in the healthcare environment…You’ve got an NHS greener team contact in every single hospital. So, speak to them and see what you can do about sustainability,” he concluded.
CSJ
impact UK COPD_update). This does not include manufacturing, embodied carbon (CO2e), disposing of the device or any consumables and maintenance e.g. Lithium Battery replacement. The manually powered Compact Airway Medical Suction Unit - CAMSU, offers the solution of providing one simple Net Zero, low-cost portable airway suction device; made from plant based bio-polymers, that does not require electrical power. The company says it will be significantly cheaper (90%) than existing technologies and 90% smaller and lighter; but just as effective and will conform to ISO 10079, the international standard for airway suction.
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www.clinicalservicesjournal.com I December 2024
References 1. Further information can be accessed at:
https://airwaymedical.net
2. Nash, C, It’s not easy being green – a tool for choosing sustainable clinical products, Nursing Times, 25 July, 2023. Accessed at: https://
www.nursingtimes.net/hospital-nursing/ its-not-easy-being-green-a-tool-for-choosing- sustainable-clinical-products-25-07-2023/
3. Evergreen is an online tool for suppliers to share sustainability information with the NHS and align with its net zero and sustainability ambitions. For more details, visit: https://
www.england.nhs.uk/nhs-commercial/central- commercial-function-ccf/evergreen/
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