Hi all, it's 28 March and that means... NHS Sustainability Day! You might have seen my blog* with 5 ideas for kidney units last week? Even if you've got nothing planned, it's not too late to sponsor a tree in the NHS Forest or spend an extra 10 minutes helping your hypertensive patients to start exercising more...
Is your kidney unit doing anything for NHS Sustainability Day? Please reply to this thread and let us know.
[*Five ideas blog: http://sustainablehealthcare.org.uk/green-nephrology/blog/2012/03/nhs-s… ]
The Renal Dialysis Unit, Victoria Hospital, Kirkcaldy NHS Fife, raised awareness yesterday using the Dialysis Equipment Inventory. We are always looking at ways to reduce waste and this inventory is a great way to get started. We use so many consumables in a dialysis procedure - Do we really need them all? Is there an alternative? Can we reduce costs as well as waste? Something to think about!
Posters were also posted around the unit to highlight ways to reduce our energy consumption - such as 'A window left open overnight in winter will waste enough energy to drive a small car over 35 miles', 'A PC monitor switched off overnight saves enough energy to microwave six dinners', and 'Lighting an office overnight wastes enough energy to heat water for 1000 cups of tea'.
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Our dialysis unit is extremely busy as are all the units UK wide, but small changes make huge differences and we can all put our sustainability hat on sometimes!.....
NHS Sustainability Day is 2 months ago now, but I have been meaning for ages to say thank you to John Stoves in Bradford for passing on the results of their Trust switch-off day, in which the renal unit took part.
Staff were requested to
1. Turn off lights when your room is not occupied, and in all cupboards and stores.
2. Turn off non-essential computers if not in use and when going home.
3. Turn off equipment printers, chargers, portable heaters and air con units.
4. Turn off non-essential clinical equipment (if in doubt about patient safety consult dept. manager, or leave it on).
Over the switch-off day weekend (30 March), the Trust saved on electricity consumption:
- Bradford Royal Infirmary 4.6%
- St Luke’s Hospital 7.0%
(I notice that St Luke's is where the renal unit is located, no doubt they were responsible for the extra 2.4% reduction...)
If sustained throughout the year across the Trust, the savings would equate to £61,000 and 279,525 Kg CO2.
Seems pretty simple and effective - have any other renal units got switch-off initiatives going?
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