Infection prevention In addition, for the HPB department alone, the
care bundle strategy has significantly reduced carbon emissions – the equivalent of 185 return flights to Rome. “This is a huge carbon footprint saving – just
by implementing something that we all know works,” he commented.
Surveillance Mr. Bond Smith went on to discuss how surveillance can be continued, ensuring these improvements are sustained in the future. Trusts do not have the time or team resources to follow every patient for 30 days, using standard methods, he pointed out. Furthermore, one-third of SSIs occur after 30 days and, if the patient has an implant, an SSI may occur even up to a year later.
“Surveillance for thirty days isn’t necessarily good enough,” he commented. “So, what is the solution? You have to put the solution into the hands of the patient. Who cares most about that wound? It is the patient!
“If you can put a digital solution into the hands
of the patient with their smart phone, they will embrace it. Hospitals follow up a lot of patients unnecessarily. Seven out of 10 patients do not need follow-up; 70% of your patients do not need to drive in. This is a carbon footprint that we can reduce,” he continued. Mr. Bond Smith highlighted a simple digital solution, called Isla, that can be used to monitor patients’ healing progress, which is accessed via the patients’ smart phone. Patients share information about their recovery by taking a picture of their wound and submitting them through a secure link they receive via SMS – all from the comfort of their own homes. Clinicians can easily and regularly review the images, enabling them to intervene at the earliest signs of infection. Clinicians can then provide the next steps via telephone, eliminating the need for face-to-face appointments and providing efficient and responsive care.
Adding the Isla platform’s visual information
to patient records amounts to a time-saving opportunity worth £325,000, he reported. The average time to receive a referral to a wound specialist is 103 hours, but the use of Isla can reduce this to 27 hours. (These figures are according to case study findings from a central London community health Trust.) Furthermore, the platform can save patients 310 hours of travel time – the equivalent of 898km. “This is a solid piece of digital innovation that can ensure patients do not have to keep coming back – it is a sustainable solution. You are not handing them lots of paper. This is something high impact that you should be doing at your Trusts,” Mr. Bond Smith concluded.
22
www.clinicalservicesjournal.com I June 2023
COMMENT with CHRISTOPHER BOOMER
Balancing IP&C and sustainability
Christopher Boomer says that infection prevention and control teams are becoming more aware of sustainability and are now more demanding of suppliers when it comes to the green agenda. He believes that PPE manufacturers can play a key role in helping to drive sustainability. IP&C teams are becoming more aware of sustainability and rightly so. Sustainability should be high on everyone’s agenda, and we all need to look at how we currently do things and take action to find solutions for improvement. We are finding that it’s not just IP&C teams, but every member of the NHS is becoming more aware of sustainability and its impact, especially since the COVID-19 pandemic. We empathise with the IP&C teams as they have a difficult balance to strike between being open to change, while still maintaining high standards for the safety of the patient and NHS staff. IP&C teams need to work in partnership with suppliers and have open dialogues
surrounding matters of sustainability – this will lead to Trusts finding and implementing the most appropriate solutions. However, one of the first actions should be to choose UK manufactured products. We are working tirelessly with NHS procurement teams, IP&C teams and local partners to turn the environmental burden of single use face masks into a manufacturing resource. This is top of our agenda, and one which strives to meet our joint sustainability goals. So, how can Trusts balance their need for IP&C with their sustainability goals, when it
comes to PPE? I don’t believe this is an either/or question, as we can have both. There are great examples of some Trusts already making big gains by just applying existing best practices of hand hygiene, which is reducing the need for gloves. These programmes have seen a dramatic reduction in glove usage while also improving
hand hygiene and combatting dermatitis issues. Not only does this help to address sustainability issues, but a reduction in spend is also achieved. There are also case studies proving the benefits of reusable PPE items over those which
are single use. I do believe this will play a vital role in society going forward. However, the use of plastics in these products should not be overlooked. Where products remain single use, it is important to design and manufacture these with sustainability in mind. Again, if manufacturers can continue to work closely with the IP&C and NHS teams, these
products can be developed with specific materials that can ease recyclability. This means that at the end of a product’s life, it can be placed into the recycling waste stream and reprocessed to manufacture other useful products, thus resulting in a circular production process. There are many advantages for offering robust products made from plastics, such as long product lifespans, and now the ability to recycle them at end of life. There is a lot of good work being done to create awareness of sustainability and promote
waste reduction and this needs to be recognised. However, there is a long road ahead and still so much that can be achieved. The amount of PPE currently going to landfill and/or incineration has a huge environmental impact. The good news is that many Trusts now have members of staff who can take the lead on sustainability, so there are resources now being allocated to this area. There is a sense of drive and passion at all levels in Trusts to take action and find solutions, but this also needs to be supported by suppliers to develop sustainable products for a circular economy.
*Christopher Boomer is the general manager of DenPro – the PPE and healthcare
products brand of Denroy, one of the world’s leading innovators of high-tech, critical components for the aerospace, medical and defence industries. The company supplies FFP3 masks which can be recycled to manufacture new products – such as kidney dishes.
CSJ
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