I came across a press announcement this morning that I can’t quite get out of my head. You can read it in full further down the page but let me just say here that it’s regarding Singapore’s National University Hospital having become the first hospital globally to receive International Healthcare Sustainability Certification. The facility’s achievements though, go so far beyond sustainability, that they’ve astonished me. It’s not just the enormous reduction in the amount of waste produced, but the way the entire team there seems to have been given the opportunity to become involved in cutting waste, streamlining operations and saving money. Lots of money… And in so doing, helping care for the environment. 

  

Indeed, many of the projects contributing to the Certification-win were driven by ordinary staff members encouraged to submit their ideas into what I gather is an Awards program within the facility itself. A manufacturing company where I briefly worked as a teen had a ‘suggestions box’ in which employees could post ideas. Those that were taken up won the instigators £25 – which back then was well over a week’s salary for some. I’m assuming that the hospital’s scheme is similar but far more high-tech… Staff came up with things like ‘auto-power-down’ of the facility’s 2,500 desktop computers in outpatient areas during non-operating hours, an antibiotic over-prescription overhaul, digital medical reporting rather than paper-based workflows, measures to tackle couch paper overuse (a real bugbear of mine!) and lots more. 

  

This initiative sets a powerful example and if one hospital alone can make this much difference, just imagine what could be achieved if other, similar facilities did the same – and, looking more locally, how much money our National Health Service could save, if those at the helm followed suit! 

  

As someone who’s taken on a carer’s role for a couple of family members, I get to visit local healthcare facilities fairly frequently and I can’t help noticing just how costly modern practices must be - not only in financial terms but when it comes to their impact on the environment. The amount of waste produced is incredible, while the intricate design of the equipment along with the facilities themselves must make their cleaning really difficult to do well. I’m probably going to be slated for saying it, but I’m wondering whether – in striving to prevent cross-contamination (and maybe the risk of being sued for negligence by patients who’ve caught illnesses in hospital?) the powers that be have taken everything a step too far, perhaps to the extent that the resulting rising costs are leading to longer waiting lists for those needing urgent help, and thus may be causing more deaths than, say, not replacing couch paper between patients, when there isn’t an apparent need to do so. Your thoughts?