Clinical staff innovating for sustainability at UCLH

Ward and unit teams have been putting together innovative sustainability projects as part of the Green Ward Competition that has been running over the last six weeks at University College, London Hospitals.  CSH has been supporting teams of nurses and doctors to implement green innovations in their settings and measure the environmental, social and financial impacts that result.

Rajnika Patel, sustainable development manager at UCLH, said “Sustainable healthcare is preventative, patient-centred, efficient and low carbon. This competition made it fun for colleagues to work together on something they have wanted to tackle for a while and were given the push by the Green Wards competition to take action”.

The four projects:

• Improving stock management – a team of nurses have pulled together all those involved in their stock and redesigned the process for less waste and easier use of the stock room;
• Patient-led water diary – prevention of dehydration and kidney complications by supporting patients to take control of their fluid intake;
• A greener intensive care unit – aiming to reduce the cost of disposal and increase recycling on the critical care unit; and
• Towards greener radiotherapy – taking on the Department of Health’s 2018 target, this project aimed to take the first steps towards becoming a paperless department.

 
The winner will be announced on NHS Sustainability Day (Thursday March 26th) and will receive £500 to be reinvested in sustainable innovation.
 
CSH’s director, Rachel Stancliffe expressed the feelings of all the CSH staff who’ve been involved when she said, “We are delighted to see such high quality projects developing from teams who really understand the links between saving resources and direct patient and staff benefit. The projects all have good outcomes for sustainability which can now be shared across the Trust, saving money, carbon and staff time as well as improving patient outcomes”.

Other Trusts interested in running their own competition should contact info-at-sustainablehealthcare.org.uk