Small, practical changes in an endoscopy department helped reduce waste, improve recycling and engage staff and patients in sustainability.
The issue
Endoscopy services generate significant amounts of waste through single-use items, plastic packaging and consumables. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the increased use of PPE highlighted the scale of waste being produced across healthcare settings and prompted staff to look more closely at opportunities to reduce unnecessary waste.
While many healthcare professionals are keen to support environmental sustainability, initiatives can be difficult to implement in busy clinical environments where competing priorities, workload pressures and established routines can present barriers to change.
The solution
Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust introduced a series of practical interventions focused on reducing waste and embedding sustainability into everyday practice. The approach centred on encouraging staff to ask one simple question: ‘What can we do to be more sustainable today?’
Sustainability was integrated into team huddles and departmental discussions, creating opportunities for staff to identify small changes that could be implemented immediately.
Several initiatives were introduced:
- Reducing the use of dignity shorts: Rather than automatically issuing dignity shorts to all patients, staff began offering patients a choice. This reduced the use of a product that is generally not recyclable and often ends up in landfill.
- Replacing plastic bags with reusable baskets: Reusable patient belongings baskets were introduced in place of single-use plastic bags. The baskets could be cleaned between patients and proved popular with both patients and staff.
- Improving waste segregation: The department reviewed the location of waste and recycling bins. Small changes to bin placement made recycling easier and helped improve waste segregation.
- Increasing awareness through visual prompts: Posters, information boards and sustainability updates were displayed in staff and patient areas. A dedicated green endoscopy board helped raise awareness of ongoing projects and encouraged wider engagement.
Alongside these interventions, staff were encouraged to become local sustainability champions and share ideas for further improvements.
The impact
The project demonstrated that small changes can have a meaningful impact on both environmental performance and staff engagement.
Outcomes included:
- reduced use of non-recyclable dignity shorts
- reduction in single-use plastic bags
- improved waste segregation practices
- increased awareness of sustainability among staff
- positive patient feedback on reusable storage baskets
- adoption of successful initiatives in other areas of the organisation.
Photographs and audits were used to demonstrate changes before and after interventions, helping staff visualise the difference their actions were making and reinforcing continued engagement.
The project also highlighted the importance of culture change. Regular conversations about sustainability helped staff recognise that environmentally sustainable practices can often be cost-effective, efficient and beneficial for patient care.
What's next?
Future work will focus on expanding sustainability initiatives within endoscopy and sharing learning across other clinical areas. Areas for further improvement include reducing reliance on single-use items, improving waste segregation, increasing energy efficiency and strengthening collaboration with sustainability teams across the NHS.
The project has shown that creating opportunities for discussion, celebrating success and empowering staff to contribute ideas can help build a culture where sustainability becomes part of everyday clinical practice. The key lesson is that meaningful change often starts with a simple question: ‘What can we do to be more sustainable today?’
Contributor: Leigh Donnelly.
Institution: Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust.