News
Princess Alexandra Hospital SSD moves to reusables
The sterile services department at Princess Alexandra Hospital NHS Trust, Harlow, has taken the decision to move away from single-use plastics to reusable alternatives. Speaking at the Institute of Decontamination Sciences, sterile services manager, Anthony Heard, presented a case study outlining the cost implications and benefits. The sterile services department was already
under pressure to reduce costs, when the supplier of single-use plastics advised of impending price increases. “I considered moving to an alternative supplier,
which might save a few hundred pounds, or whether I could turn to reusables, as I had done 15-years previously, when at Plymouth,” Anthony explained. At Princess Alexandra Hospital, the department’s plastic usage comprised: 27,000 receivers, 36,000 galipots and 6,000 compartmented trays – a total of almost 65,000 single pieces of plastic. The equivalent of 3,300 kg of plastic, these single- use items were previously incinerated after use. Anthony estimated that around three extra wash loads a day would be needed to move to reusable alternatives – one extra load per machine, and calculated that there was spare capacity available. He also investigated the annual cost of single-use,
which totalled around £12,160 a year. Both plastic and metal were considered as
reusable alternatives. The concern was that metal would be heavier and would increase the weight of the trays, while feedback from theatres was that plastic is quieter to use. There were also concern that the metal would reflect under the theatre lights. From Anthony’s point of view, plastic was also more cost-effective. Moving to reusable would require 750 extra wash loads per year; 105 litres of detergent, and 10,800 litres of water – a total ongoing cost of £1,800. The change to reusable would also incur various one-off costs, including £4,000 for racks and around £1,800 for the various reusable plastic items. The total one-off cost was calculated to be around £6,000. The results were impressive: 4,00kg less waste per year; 65,000 single-use items no longer being used or going for incineration; and a £10,000 annual saving. In appreciation for his work, Anthony was shortlisted for the Trust’s Amazing People Award in 2022. Janine Farmer, commercial manager Warwick SASCo, supplier of Anthony’s reusable plastic products, said: “There is a need to dispel the myths about the use of plastics in hospitals.” She pointed out that, 70% of used plastic is recoverable. Warwick SASCo is now in discussion with other Trusts.
Intuitive and Newcastle Surgical Training Centre collaborate on training programme
Intuitive has announced that surgical trainees from across Northeast England are gaining hands- on experience of robotic-assisted surgery (RAS) with da Vinci surgical systems thanks to a UK first programme designed to train the next generation of surgeons. More than 30 surgical trainees from NHS Trusts
across the Northeast are enrolled in the landmark programme which is designed to give access to technology training on a da Vinci surgical system at an earlier stage in a surgeon’s career. The da Vinci Academic Surgical Trainee
Programme is run by the Newcastle Surgical Training Centre (NSTC) in partnership with Intuitive, the developer of the da Vinci surgical systems that are used across Trusts in England. Professor Alan Horgan, consultant colorectal
surgeon at Newcastle Hospitals is the co-director of the Newcastle Surgical Training Centre and believes the training programme has huge benefits for trainees in the region. He said: “This means a lot to the Newcastle
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www.clinicalservicesjournal.com I July 2023
Impact of pandemic on vascular surgery
in the UK The National Vascular Registry (NVR) has published a report on the Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on vascular surgery in the UK, presenting key findings from NVR data throughout 2020 and 2021. NVR previously reported on data from
25 September 2020, which showed that a concomitant COVID-19 infection in patients undergoing vascular surgical procedures significantly increased the risk of respiratory complications and mortality. This analysis has been updated, using data through to the end of 2021, exploring whether the COVID-19 vaccination programme provided protection to patients against this life-threatening complication.
One finding is that, between March 2020 and Dec 2021, confirmed post-operative COVID-19 diagnoses were most common among non-elective procedures, ranging from 18.4% (non-elective AAA repair) to 27.5% (major lower limb amputation). For elective procedures, the reported rates of confirmed postoperative COVID-19 diagnoses were lower, ranging from 1.6% (elective AAA repair) to 4.1% (lower-limb bypass). Other key findings include:
l There was only a modest rise during the first COVID-19 wave (Mar-Jun 2020) with a larger rise during the second wave (Nov 2020-Feb 2021)
l There was a different pattern for respiratory complications after surgery, with higher rates observed in both wave 1 and wave 2.
l The period March to December 2021 was associated with rates of respiratory complications and in-hospital postoperative mortality returning to levels observed pre-pandemic in 2019.
Surgical Training Centre and also to the Trust – to be the first of its kind in the UK and indeed in Europe to be running a surgical training programme which will allow all trainees to become proficient in robotic surgery by the time they complete surgical training. “For our patients this is great news as there will be more and more surgeries being performed robotically in the future and it means their surgeons will have been trained at an early stage to perform these procedures and they can take full advantage of the technology.”
The association between these changes and the vaccine roll-out was explored using time-series information on the number of individuals who had received their first vaccine. The analysis suggests the vaccine may have produced a reduction of around 10% in the odds of a respiratory complication and postoperative in-hospital mortality. However, these estimates are not
sufficiently precise to produce a statistically significant result at a 5% level. View the full report at:
www.hqip.org.uk
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