Single use plastic consumables in the NHS. Is any body racking it?

[Miljah]

It has struck me, over the years, how much plastic the NHS uses; syringes ( in plastic packets), every tip of everything; bags and bottles of saline (in plastic packets) and other drugs; lines; cannulae (in plastic packets); more or less everything apart from the carpentry tools in theatre.

The list goes on and on.

I am interested in knowing if there is any National Body tasked with trying to cut this down.

Are we being told 'sterility' correctly? What happened to the dept. called something like Sterile Supplies? (TSSU? ) Re-sterilised tools? Cotton drapes?

We barely recycle a thing in my Trust!

TRACKING it 🙄. Sorry, am on my mob. Can't proofread the title.

I would be very interested to know this too.

Can’t speak for anyone else and I don’t work for the nhs but in my line of work we have to use single use disposables as it’s a cross contamination risk otherwise
The rule is it’s either used once and thrown or it’s sterilised No exceptions and non negotiable
you just can’t sterilise anything except our tools in the steriliser we use as its too small
Not sure what the answer is

because of cross infection only things that can be sterilised at high temperatures are really reusable ie stainless steel instruments
also things that are hollow ( like needles) are impossible
all needles now have to have a re sheathing device, there is no way yet of cutting the number of disposable items like gloves though I have seen people waste them by gloving then remebering something so gloves come off (unused) something is done then a second pair used,
I remember getting a blood test once when the nurse was on her fourth pair of gloves before she actually touched me, I was counting because I used to be a dentist and of course we paid for our own gloves, when you pay for your own stuff you tend to remember stuff before you put gloves on,
you also have the problem of people putting everything in clinical waste as it is easier when actually some things like hand towels after washing hands should be in normal waste clinical waste costs huge multiples more to dispose of, I think they are just so scared of accidentally putting something in normal bin that they just put everything in clinical waste to avoid making a mistake
in a hospital or Doctors surgery to put a tissue with blood from a nose bin in normal waste would be awful
but if you had a nose bleed at home it would be perfectly acceptable to put the tissue in normal bin
because of HIV c. diff, CJD, Hep B etc hospitals have to be so so careful because you are looking a law suits in the tens of thousands if not more for a mistake

IMO settings like healthcare are the absolute last places that should be giving up single use plastics. There is plenty of scope to reduce plastic use in places where it is not critical to infection control and health.

Drapes in theatre are reusable.

Also healthcare plastic doesn't end up in oceans, although I guess the fact it is burnt has a different impact on the environment.

I agree plastic around cannulas is insignificant compared to plastic around apples, school shirts, comics, mcdonalds toys, plastic cutlery, tampon wrappers etc

There are some legitimate uses of single use plastics. Healthcare is one of them.

When my DD had an operation recently I was amazed to see that the slide sheet they used to move her on and off the operating table on was single use. It was a really well sewn heavy duty piece of material.

Even instruments that are sterilized have to be packaged otherwise why sterilize them? Recycling could be looked at, but I sure as hell am not sacrificing my health for the sake of reducing plastics in hospitals and dentists when everything that comes mail order is covered in the stuff, supermarkets, well we know that, household products that could be made from recycled material but aren't, and loads of stuff we send to recycle is going abroad to be disposed of anyway.

I understand the sentiment, but health professions are the last place to be looking for this improvement I think.

There's a move in my trust to reusable/biodegradable items, such as cardboard sharps bins, and degradable cleaning and hygiene wipes. Also talking about getting rid of plastic cutlery (currently used where risk assessment requires) to using wooden, although not sure wood is less risky than metal. It's a start, but a very long way to go. I think the NHS will have special allowances in place long after other industries have banned s use plastics

There is a petition about at the moment: petition.parliament.uk/petitions/242858

I think the point here is that whilst, environmentally speaking, pretty much no plastic is good plastic, some uses are more defensible than others. Healthcare associated plastic waste is a lot more difficult to cut back without negatively impacting on the welfare of millions, whereas very few people are likely to suffer if their apples or slice of Brie at the supermarket don't come shrink-wrapped into next century.

I agree with others there are certain areas where although it should be considered if small changes can realistically be made healthcare should be the last worry because patient safety does need to come first.

Ds is tube fed, when we are at home we do reuse entral syringes but even then they have a very limited life before they start getting stuck. Our recycling bin is full of plastic bottles and other feed related bits

just like scrubs the drapes are hot washed at 65-70C plus steamed in hospital
scrubs washed at home should be at a minimum temperature of 60C after being worn once it is thought over 70% of uniforms washed at home are not washed separately ( ie mixed with household laundry) and are not washed hot enough as main modern machines don't have a setting above 60C

Thinking along the glove route, nurseries are really bad for this. Each new child should have a new apron (plastic) and new gloves (plastic) when the nursery has 50 children in nappies, all gets changed twice/three times per day as standard plus any additional changes for soiled or full nappies that's a huge number of gloves, aprons and nappies all to be thrown away.

Plastic is cheap as well isn't it, I wouldn't be surprised if it's on the agenda, but would be surprised if it's a real priority. The trouble with sterilising is that it would take extra manpower to do it (which the NHS doesn't have), and rely on no human error; no thanks. Things like the stuff in the canteen etc should be changed, but out of any industry I think healthcare should have allowances. I was reading about 'bendy' glass which is apparently shatterproof, which if costs were kept down could prove to be a good alternative for plastic, depending on effect on environment for production and recycling of course! So I guess the dream would be that, manufacturers can't really argue with cheap yet more eco friendly.

I work in medical microbiology.
Single use plastics are vital for this line of work and the amount of plastic waste we produce is astounding - pipette tips, loops, spreaders, plates, gloves, test kits, swabs.
But I don’t really see any way around it. It’s the nature of what we are doing. We do autoclave quite a lot of things we use but autoclaving everything would be too expensive, time consuming and use too much energy.

I noticed that the speculums for smear tests are now plastic and are disposed of afterwards, whereas a few years ago they used to be metal. I wonder what the pros and cons are to this and the reason for the change.

If nurseries didn't use disposable aprons and gloves, that's a hell of a lot of hepatitis, C diff, potentially polio and a whole world of sickness, diarrhoea and vomiting diseases that could be spread to the other babies.

I'm absolutely fine with single use plastics where it comes to infection control/clinical waste/any contact with bodily fluids, whether in childcare or healthcare.

It's the random shit that we don't need that's the problem. Like pretty coloured clothes pegs or plastic wrapped around turnips.

Really pleased with the Trust I work for......

www.newcastle-hospitals.org.uk/news/news-item-23892.aspx

I worry about it a bit as a patient as have to use self catheters - each time using baby wipes to clean myself before and after (not recommended to carry and use the same cloth all day) , plastic catheters , plastic bags for disposal ... eight times a day usually ... plus leg and night bags as well sometimes and pads at times ! They can’t be recycled so just go to landfill and I do think about it often tbh .

When I worked for healthcare we used about 15 bags of plastic a day ... pads, wipes, gloves , aprons , cups , medicine cups , IV bags, lines, cannulas, needle casing, glide sheets (binned after each patient) . Plus all food served in plastic containers . Huge amount of stuff going out daily .