We’re stepping up our efforts to go green after introducing new patient wristbands which use less plastic and extending the use of recycled paper across our sites.
The procurement team has already rolled out the new wristbands at Ipswich Hospital, and will begin introducing them in Colchester shortly. The bands use an adhesive strip rather than a traditional plastic connector clip, which will have a major impact on reducing the amount of plastic waste we send to landfill as we use more than 330,000 each year.
The wristbands will also support our move to SmartCare, which will eventually allow us to track and trace every single patient interaction and piece of equipment or medication used during treatment using barcodes and scanners.
In addition, the procurement team will also be extending the use of recycled, unbleached A4 copier paper to Ipswich Hospital over the coming weeks. The paper has been used at Colchester for some time, and has been chosen as the NHS standard as it is more sustainable and environmentally-friendly than bleached paper or those which include brightening agents.
Procurement colleagues are continuing to look for other ways to help us go green, and are currently trying to source new anaesthetic masks which use less plastic.
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