A Network for everyone interested in improving the environmental sustainability of operating theatres.

Sustainability in Ophthalmology

In Sustainability in Ophthalmology the Royal College of Ophthalmologists calls for leadership from the profession and the healthcare industry to develop best practice and integrate these into our service redesign. This is a position paper from the College, designed for Ophthalmologists, alli

Royal College of Ophthalmologists

April, 2013

CleanMed 2013 - call for case studies

CSH is hosting this year's CleanMed Europe conference, 17-19 September 2013.

Are online journals actually greener compared to the print versions?

It is perceived that online medical journals have a smaller carbon footprint as well as costs, than its printed version. Subscription rates for online and print versions of most medical journals portray this difference. BJS is an exception to this practice. Reliable evidence is hard to come by with regard to the carbon footprint of print products and downloading journal articles; the available evidence is confusing. It may be opportune for this forum to consolidate the evidence of the carbon footprint of print vs. online medical journals.

Green Ward Winners at the Whittington

A competition including a brief intervention, designed by CSH has had an immediate impact at Whittington, including going from 0 - 60 bags of waste recycled per week in one operating theatre. Hugh Montgomery, climate expert and Whittington clinician, inspired 3 departments to compete for cash and energy-saving prizes which have just been awarded.

Cost-Effective and Sustainable Surgery

The Association of Surgeons in Great Britain and the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland have published a Consensus Statement on Cost-effective and Sustainable Surgery. The statement is based on presentations, discussions and interactive sessions at a Consensus Conference which was held on 10th November 2011 in Dublin.

Introducing recycling into the operating theatres (Oxford case study)

The Oxford University Hospitals Trust has reduced the amount of waste going to landfill or incineration by introducing recycling into the operating theatre setting. Previously all waste from clinical areas was disposed of via orange clinical waste bags.

Centre for Sustainable Healthcare

April, 2012

Lots of sustainability in current edition of AA

Many of you are probably already aware, but there are lots of articles on sustainability issues in this month's Anaesthesia & Analgesia - see:&

Recycling, but what about Reduce & Reuse

After sucessfully launching a recycling scheme in 34 theatres, across 3 theatre suites, we've got a motivated multidisciplinary group who would lik

AAGBI environment pages

The AAGBI’s Anaesthesia and the environment section of their website.

AAGBI

Climate Week: Whittington Hospital Green Ward Competition

"How can we involve clinical departments in our Climate Week?" wondered the team at Whittington Hospital, which has been setting up a series of green events for 12-16 March 2012. The answer: a Green Ward Competition. Five clinical areas - including theatres - are competing for a £500 cash prize to be awarded for the best carbon reduction project.

Reducing the Environmental Impact of the Operating Theatre

This is a poster I presented to the Institute for Healthcare Improvement in Orlando, Florida in December 2010, following work I'd done in the day theatre suite of Jersey General Hospital.

Frank Swinton

November, 2010

SAP - sustainable action planning resources for clinical teams

SAP is a programme to support clinical teams in taking action for sustainability. Structured around two facilitated workshops, SAP helps front-line staff to learn about sustainable healthcare, focus in on their priorities and put together a green action plan. The action plan can then

Centre for Sustainable Healthcare

February, 2010

Single-use Medical Devices - rubbish or re-process?

In the not too distant past medical devices were re-usable. The increasing use of single-use devices has led to the inexorable rise in the volume of clinical waste. But does this need to be the case? We have a quick look at the issues.

Introducing - Andrea MacNeill

As the founder and principal investigator of the Green-Op programme, Andrea is currently developing a surgical foot-printing tool to facilitate the comparative evaluation of surgical practice in the USA, Canada and UK.

Welcome to the Sustainable Operating Network

Following in the footsteps of Green Nephology and the other successful speciality programmes, SusOp has grand plans for the transformation of one of the most energy and carbon intensive aspects of modern healthcare.

prion transfer

do we need to throw everything away in case of infection?

The Nipper Mountain

Prion risk: where do we draw the line? Millions of nail clippers are incinerated every year across the NHS, as a result of policies to manage the theoretical risk of vCJD, according to Julie Hotchkiss, public health consultant in Wigan.

Pages

Browse this Networks's Resources in the Resource Library

Strategies to Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Laparoscopic Surgery

A really interesting article looking at the individual contribution of different methods of ‘greening’ strategies in operating theatres.

Am J Public Health. 2018 Apr;108(S2):S158-S164

April, 2018

A prospective clinical, cost and environmental analysis of a clinician-led virtual urology clinic

An example of how surgeons can help reduce carbon emissions outside of theatres too!

Annals of the Royal College of Surgeons of England

January, 2019

Greening the Operating Room™ Checklist

Practice Greenhealth is an American organisation working to promote sustainable, eco-friendly practices in healthcare https://practicegreenhealth.org/initiatives/greening-operating-room.

https://practicegreenhealth.org

February, 2019

Pragmatic Recycling of Paper and Cardboard in the Operating Theatre: An Audit

This study audited the introduction of recycling of paper and cardboard within an operating theatre. All waste within a single operating theatre was collected by a dedicated team for 20 surgical cases.

Journal of perioperative practice

March, 2017

Reducing the Carbon Footprint of the Operating Theatre: A Multicentre Quality Improvement Report

What provision is there for recycling within your operating theatre?

Journal of perioperative practice

June, 2013

New to thinking about Sustainability in Operating Theatres? A couple of useful review articles (one short, one long)….

Environmentalism in surgical practice. Weiss, A et al. Current Problems in Surgery. April 2016; 53 (4): 165-205

April, 2016

Anaesthetic gas - monitoring practice and motivating change

I am an anaesthetist and recently visited the Centre for Sustainable Healthcare while on sabbatical. Thank you to Rachel and Frances for meeting with me. I have attached a copy of a behaviour change project i am undertaking in my anaesthetic department.

Matthew Jenks and OraTaiao (New Zealand Climate and Health Council)

June, 2018