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The Bupa Health Insights series brings you the latest healthcare trends, interviews with medical experts and specialist insight from Bupa: all designed to keep you and your organisation one step ahead.
For the latest insights on supporting health and the environment, take a look here.
“We need to move away from the traditional make-use-dispose economic model to a new system of circular healthcare, where resources are kept in use for as long as possible through recovery and used in a safe way,” says Bupa UK Medical Director Dr Robin Clark.
Bupa is doing this by focussing on three pillars:
- Mission Zero – reducing the environmental impact of healthcare
- Mission Accelerate – fast-tracking innovative solutions to the biggest health-related sustainability challenges
- Mission Regenerate – supporting action to protect, restore and regenerate local environments for the benefit of our customers, our teams and our communities.
Bupa has launched its eco-Disruptive global initiative which encourages its teams to work with sustainability start-ups and is putting this plan into action at the Cromwell Hospital in London.
Although the building itself is more than 40 years old, Bupa is making it more energy efficient by installing sensors for air conditioning and lighting and replacing inefficient air handling units.
Reduce, re-use and recycle
The hospital also runs on 100% renewable electricity and a water filtration system has eliminated the use of 140,000 single-use plastic bottles a year.
Switching to re-usable plastic trays which can be disinfected has eliminated the need for 9,000 single-use plastics trays which would have been incinerated as clinical waste, saving £4,000 per year.
The partnership with Upcycled Medical, one of the start-ups showcased in the eco-Disruptive programme, means all scrubs are now made from 65% polyester that is made from recycled plastic – 25% of which is recovered from the ocean.
Another partnership with SageTech Medical is collecting and recycling 99% of anaesthetic waste.
And turning to re-useable laryngoscope handles from Timesco containing rechargable batteries will save £6,000 annually and prevents the incineration of 1,900 handles, along with their lithium batteries every year.
Andrew Fairweather, Strategic Change and Implementation Director at Cromwell Hospital says: “The changes we have made, and continue to make, at the Cromwell Hospital provide an exciting example of what can be achieved through adaption and innovation.
“This is no longer a nice-to-have, it is now a must-have if we are going to address climate change to save our health, and the health of our planet.”
For more on how healthcare can become more environmentally sustainable, take a look at the full article here.
This article has been abbreviated by Health & Protection.