The Government is launching a ‘major crackdown’ on waste in the NHS to save millions of pounds a year. Ministers say the savings will be ‘redirected to frontline services’, and the waste reduction and recycling programme will help the NHS become net zero by 2045.
The new ‘Design for Life Roadmap’ strategy lays out 30 actions such as scrapping the use of single-use medical devices and reducing reliance on foreign imports. It includes the Government incentivising UK-based MedTech companies to produce sustainable products and train NHS staff on how to use them.
The proposals will initiate the shift to circular methods of reuse, remanufacture and recycling, keeping resources close to where they are needed and generating economic opportunities within the UK, helping to ‘transform the country into a life sciences superpower’ and creating ‘thousands more UK jobs’.
Reliance on high-volume products imported from overseas can make patient care vulnerable to global supply shocks and these plans to support UK manufacturing will limit this impact.
What’s more, single-use devices substantially contribute to the 156,000 tonnes of clinical waste that the NHS produces every year in England. Reusing medical devices will reduce the UK’s carbon footprint and plastic pollution and preserve precious metals such as platinum and titanium, which are often used in medical devices and currently end up in landfill.
Devices like walking aids and surgical instruments are currently thrown away after just one use, but the Government hopes to encourage innovation to safely remanufacture a wider range of products.
The roadmap gave examples of where innovations are currently being made. These included harmonic shears – a surgical device that seal wounds using ultrasound waves – which are £500 per device but 90% of them are thrown away after one use. However, some companies are purchasing these devices and remanufacturing them at a lower price.
At Northampton General Hospital NHS Trust, an Ophthalmology department saved 1,000 pairs of disposable scissors and £12,000 in a year by switching to reusable pairs, while Leeds Teaching Hospitals Trust saved £76,610 purchasing 604 remanufactured electrophysiology catheters, and generated £22,923 by selling used devices for collection.
Health and social care secretary Wes Streeting said: ‘The NHS is broken. It is the mission of this Government to get it back on its feet, and we can’t afford a single penny going to waste.
‘Every year, millions of expensive medical devices are chucked in the bin after being used just once. We are going to work closely with our medical technology industry to eliminate waste and support homegrown MedTech and equipment.’
Professor Sir Stephen Powis, national medical director of NHS England, said: ‘While the NHS is treating record numbers of patients, we know there is much more to do to ensure taxpayers get value for money.
‘The NHS made a record £7.25bn worth of efficiency savings last year and is targeting a further £9bn of savings for 2024/25. But we are rightly still looking for ways to get our money’s worth for every penny we spend.’
More than 80 stakeholders from the UK MedTech industry, the health and care system and research organisations helped to create the Design for Life Roadmap.
The Royal College of Physicians (RCP) welcomed its publication, saying the current over-reliance on single-use med-tech products is ‘expensive, wasteful, not sustainable and leaves us vulnerable to supply chain issues’.
Dr Mark Harber, the RCP’s special adviser on healthcare sustainability and climate change, said: ‘The NHS, like most health services, generates a huge amount of waste related to day-to-day practice. Only a relatively small proportion of this waste is recycled with most of it either going to landfill or incineration, both of which have very major environmental impacts.
‘Shifting towards a circular system for medical devices that enables them to be reused, remanufactured, or recycled will have a significant effect on the environmental impact of the NHS without compromising patient care.’
In the summer, the RCP released its Green Physician Toolkit suggesting a range of everyday steps physicians can take to help the NHS reach its net zero goal and mitigate the risks of climate change.
This came after the International Hospital Federation’s Geneva Sustainability Centre launched a platform in October 2023 to digitally empower hospitals and healthcare leaders to drive sustainable, low-carbon, equitable and resilient healthcare.
