I thought it would be useful to hear from my colleague Dr. Frances Mortimer who is the Medical Director for Sustainable Healthcare and her views on Kidney units. Please see her comments below.
Kidney units can make big carbon and £ savings by slimming down their use of dialysis consumables. Units in the Green Nephrology Network are making this their mission in 2012, with the help of a simple guide, designed to help them to spot opportunities and measure savings.
Kidney units can make big carbon and £ savings by slimming down their use of dialysis consumables. Units in the Green Nephrology Network are making this their mission in 2012, with the help of a simple guide, designed to help them to spot opportunities and measure savings.
Leaving
unnecessary items unopened saves far more money and carbon than recycling them
after use, because most of the impact is due to their manufacture rather than
waste disposal.
And
dialysis units carry out so many treatments, that savings quickly multiply up.
In Fife, the removal of unnecessary consumables (saline bags, giving sets and
dressing packs) saved £24,900 in 2011.
Kidney care staff are challenged to carry out a simple inventory of equipment use per dialysis session - to identify and pursue possible savings, and let us know how much money and carbon they are saving by the end of the year.
We'll be
featuring their successes and frustrations in the Green Nephrology blog spot and forum.
Dr Frances Mortimer,
Medical Director, Centre for
Sustainable Healthcare
Tips from dialysis
units:
• Hanging
saline bags for reinfusion may not be needed any longer as many dialysis
machines now provide online infusion.
• Changing
the size of bicarbonate cartridges can reduce packaging and bicarbonate
wastage.
• Dressings
packs can be slimmed in consultation with suppliers, or substituted with
individual items such as gauze swabs.
• In
Cornwall, no longer setting up stations in advance has saved 5 full sets of
dialysis equipments per week.
• Use of
plastic Griff Bins® for routine clinical waste is expensive and may not be
necessary.
• Units can save tens of thousands per year and eliminate the need
for acid canisters by arranging for central acid delivery.
Please click here for more case
studies
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