NHS ward staff taking action to green healthcare on NHS Sustainability Day 2016

Staff at Dartford & Gravesham NHS Trust and University College London Hospitals are today waiting to hear whether their projects will win the Green Ward Competition and secure £500 to spend on further green innovation. 

Over the last six weeks staff from both NHS Trusts, with support from the Centre for Sustainable Healthcare and, at Dartford & Gravesham NHS Trust also in conjunction with Low Carbon Europe, have designed and run projects to reduce the environmental, social and financial impact of their work. Projects include: instigating the use of dry powder inhalers (which have one eighteenth the environmental impact of conventional aerosol inhalers), reducing the waste of equipment in wound care and redesigning the management of staff records.

Frances Mortimer, who joined the UCLH judging panel on behalf of CSH, said “some decisions are made at Trust level – such as what boiler to install. But many resource-saving actions are in the hands of clinical and administrative staff across the organisation. It is great to see teams coming up with their own ideas of what is needed, and seeing them through!”

Read more in the Press Release below.