NHS trusts unite to reduce reliance on single use items

UCLH is one of five healthcare trusts across England that have come together to form the Circular Economy Healthcare Alliance, demonstrating their commitment to a greener and more sustainable NHS.

Together with University Hospitals Sussex, Cambridge University Hospitals, Imperial College Healthcare and Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, the trusts outline their intentions to help reduce waste and carbon emissions. In a joint statement, they declared: 

“As part of our commitment to sustainability, our collaborative group of NHS trusts aims to reduce single-use medical equipment and consumables, reusing wherever it is clinically feasible and appropriate to do so. This will be reflected in our evaluation criteria for selecting products and suppliers through the procurement process, and through building skills, knowledge, and processes in our Trust to enable this transition.”

The alliance is spearheaded by Professor Mahmood Bhutta, a consultant ear nose and throat (ENT) surgeon and clinical lead for environmental sustainability at University Hospitals Sussex. He is also professor of sustainable healthcare at Brighton and Sussex Medical School.  

He said: “The NHS in England generates a staggering  440  tonnes of medical waste every day. While discarding items has become commonplace, our research and analysis reveals that this is often unnecessary and perpetuated by misconceptions about infection risk. 

"By forming this alliance, we advocate for a shift towards using reusable products whenever safe to do so, and will always use suppliers that value sustainability. We encourage others in the NHS to join us." 

There are three key areas of change that the alliance is focusing on. These include: not using items when they are not needed, using reusable items rather than single use wherever possible and safe to do so, and ensuring end-of-life items are returned for remanufacture or recycling where possible.   

Joe Burton, the sustainability transformation project lead at UCLH said “At UCLH we are passionate about reducing our use of single-use items, as outlined in our net zero strategy Critical Care for Our Climate. Our ambition is that this alliance signals to suppliers a shared desire to change the way that trusts procure single-use items in favour of reusables, supporting the national objective for the NHS to be net zero by 2045. We have multiple projects underway at UCLH to reduce our use of single-use items and continue to share our progress with the alliance.”  

If you have any questions about the work the alliance is doing or would like to collaborate, please contact Joe Burton, sustainability transformation project lead at UCLH: joseph.burton@nhs.net

For more information about the alliance, please visit www.bsms.ac.uk/sustainability