East and North Hertfordshire NHS Trust
Year one of the Sharpsmart total waste management contract at East and North Hertfordshire NHS Trust has been an absolute pleasure. The Sharpsmart team have been friendly, knowledgeable and committed to ensuring that the service changes and improvements we needed to make could be achieved. I believe we are in safe hands.
Deborah Cockroft, Waste Manager, East and North Hertfordshire NHS TrustThe Challenge
East and North Hertfordshire NHS Trust encompasses three hospitals, a cancer centre, and a renal unit. The Trust’s largest site is the Lister Hospital which is a 566-bed general and acute district general hospital based in Stevenage.
Lister Hospital provides care for people across much of Hertfordshire and south Bedfordshire, providing a full range of medical and surgical specialities.
The Trust were dealing with financial pressures, a high number of needlestick injuries, and almost no segregation leading to a negligible offensive waste output.
The ongoing costs of their waste service were draining the Trust’s funds due to the mass overtreatment of their waste. This was partly due to staff still operating in the pandemic-era mindset of disposing of all waste into the orange bag infectious waste stream.
Although some efforts were being made to improve waste segregation, it wasn’t enough and all of the Trust’s waste was being mixed, collected, and disposed of via alternative treatment – leading to high costs and a high carbon footprint.
With an offensive waste output of 0%, the prospect of achieving the 20-20-60 (20% incineration, 20% infectious, and 60% offensive) waste split target any time soon seemed impossible.
The Trust was also seeing a high number of needlestick injuries (NSIs) due to a combination of user error and improper disposal – investigations also discovered a lack of sharps bins being used at the point of care.
Deborah Cockroft, the Trust’s Waste Manager was determined to bring Sharpsmart on board as the healthcare waste partner of choice to provide support and help the Trust achieve their clinical waste and NSI reduction targets.
Our Approach
STEP 1
The partnership with Sharpsmart began in March 2023 as a waste consultancy service, beginning with a pre-acceptance audit so that we could learn exactly what the Trust’s waste segregation and NSI baselines were so we could define mutually agreed-upon objectives and KPIs.
STEP 2
Once the audits were complete we were able to create a roadmap and clearly defined KPIs set in line with the Trust’s wider objectives. We were then able to begin work with Deborah Cockcroft to improve processes with the implementation of reusable sharps bins and waste segregation training.
We also outlined the need for a Waste Monitoring Officer position to help keep waste management on track and consistently improve waste segregation.
STEP 3
Our step-by-step approach to providing support helped alleviate the concerns of clinical staff and onboard them with new processes.
Soon after the Trust’s tender for waste came out we became their official Total Waste Management partner, managing all of their waste streams on a full-time contract.
The Solution
We swiftly rolled out our Sharpsmart reusable sharps waste containment system to improve staff and patient safety and reduce needlestick injuries. We also provided the Trust with Ben Williams, one of our expert waste management consultants – Ben spends two/three days each week supporting waste efforts within the four walls of the Trust.
Deborah’s original waste compound was located in an old disused car park with bad groundwork and no lighting but with funding secured for a new and improved compound, waste collection will be more efficient.
With our full installation for Total Waste Management well underway, our Field Service teams have installed new bins and fitted lids throughout the Trust and Deborah and Ben have relabelled all bins with improved signage to support segregation.
Educational materials including posters for the waste holds have also been added throughout the site and there have been several waste awareness events held with stands for training and education and to raise awareness.
The Outcome
Clinical staff across the Trust have been pleased to have a Sharpsmart presence onsite and love the idea of ongoing support to help them achieve their waste objectives in line with broader NHS targets.
Staff are happy with the new approach to waste management and to have us working alongside them to drive positive change by improving segregation practices and reducing overtreated waste across the various sites.
Sharps safety has been improved across the Trust with 20 fewer needlestick injuries reported than last year.
The Trust will also benefit from significant cost savings in the coming months and years.
Here’s a breakdown of the progress in under a year with the target 20-20-60 waste split target:
The starting point in June 2023
- HTI 36.15%
- AT 63.25%
- Offensive 0.6%
The progress made by May 2024
- HTI 3%
- AT 36%
- Offensive 61%
East and North Hertfordshire NHS Trust has achieved a diversion of over 60% of waste away from carbon-intensive treatment in under a year!
Other outcomes include:
- Achieved zero waste to landfill on all waste streams from day one.
- Demonstrated a 23.5% decrease in carbon emissions from the treatment/disposal of clinical waste streams.
- Introduced a secure uniform recycling programme, diverting 712kg of uniform from waste to energy to recycling in the first two months of the project.
- Demonstrated a 15.4% decrease in clinical waste disposal costs in the first year.