North West Anglia Foundation Trust

Before the introduction of the Bag-to-Bed system, almost all of the hospital’s waste was being sent to high-temperature incineration – a carbon-intensive process.

Partner sites had already experienced many benefits including drastically reducing their HTI waste volumes and this helped stakeholders at Hinchingbrooke Hospital to recognise the urgent need to change their process.

There were some concerns about introducing the new system though, the primary issue being the immediate challenge presented by the high number of staff working on-site.

As well as introducing the Bag-to-Bed system, Hinchingbrooke Hospital also partnered with Sharpsmart to manage their healthcare waste which required a site-wide audit to be conducted.

The hospital audit carried out by Sharpsmart highlighted the needs and requirements of both the hospital and staff and helped stakeholders ascertain the best implementation process for new waste streams to support their 20-20-60 target and sustainability goals.

The teams needed to work together to understand how they could best encourage correct segregation practices given the large volume of staff on site, the audit revealed a need to provide training and education for hospital staff.

Sharpsmart took a blended learning approach to the training and used educational materials to empower staff to become future trainers of other stakeholders, able to translate the right messages to the right people on an ongoing basis.