Peterborough City Hospital, a 10 year partnership
The team have continued to deliver an exceptional customer experience throughout our contract, and their products have lived up to expectations, keeping our teams safe and helping our sites to reduce their carbon footprint.
Mandy Richardson, Associate Director for Soft FM ServicesThe Challenge
Peterborough City Hospital, part of the North West Anglia NHS Foundation Trust, approached Sharpsmart in 2012 to support in driving safer sharps practices across their 650-bed site. 10 years later, the partnership spans across multiple sites and over 1,100 beds.
In 2012, stakeholders within Peterborough City Hospital (formally Peterborough and Stamford Hospital Foundation Trust) identified an underlying issue with needlestick injuries (NSIs) because of both the required manual assembly of single-use plastic sharps containers and overall sharps management practices. To drive significant improvements within these areas and provide staff and patients with greater protection against NSIs, changes to current practices were required.
Our Approach
STEP 1
Whilst searching for a safer sharps management system, the Trust came across Sharpsmart’s reusable sharps containers. The Trust found that by utilising the pre-built safety engineered device that restricts hand access through its safety tray mechanism, they would be able to significantly reduce the risk of disposal related injuries that have previously been sustained whilst using their current container system.
On further review of containers, it was also found that the reusable system would provide additional sustainable benefits. The extended lifecycle of the reusable containers, along with Sharpsmart’s alternative waste treatment processes, would reduce the need to manufacture and subsequently incinerate single-use plastics, meaning the site would reduce carbon emissions emitted from container and waste disposal.
STEP 2
In May of 2012, Peterborough’s Environmental and Sustainability Manager contacted Sharpsmart to begin the implementation of the new system. Due to the high level of NSIs being sustained, Sharpsmart and the Trust agreed to move forward as quickly as possible to avoid any further risk of injury.
Sharpsmart immediately conducted a full ward walk of the site to assess current sharp practices, generated waste volumes, and waste streams. The team then consulted with key stakeholders from Health & Safety, Infection Prevention & Control, Estates & Facilities, and Occupational Health to ensure that they were provided with the correct container and accessory solutions in line with their clinical needs and to ensure compliant ANTT (Aseptic Non Touch Technique) practices.
STEP 3
In June of 2012, following the consultation and thorough understanding of all stakeholder requirements, the Sharpsmart team fully installed the reusable container system across the 650-bed site within five days.
The Solution
Seemless implementation of the reusable container system across multiple trust sites
- Providing safer sharps management to ensure compliance with ANTT practices
- Reducing disposal-related sharps injuries
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Eliminating manual assembly of sharps containers, signifcantly reducing the risk of sharps injuries and infection
The Outcome
Since the initial implementation of the system, the Sharpsmart solution has expanded across the North West Anglia NHS Foundation Trust.
In November of 2012, it was installed into the Stamford & Rutland site, and then travelled onto Hinchingbrook in 2017. The system is now servicing a total of 1,100 beds.
In 2019, Sharpsmart were informed that since using their reusable containers, there had been no reports of a disposal related sharps injury. Alongside this, NSIs sustained at point of care had also seen a significant reduction.
Across the Trust, the Sharpsmart container solution has had significant impact on the site's carbon footprint and has resulted in the following:
- Prevented 339,690 single-use containers from manufacture
- Prevented 151.634 tonnes of single-use plastics from being manufactured and subsequently incinerated
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Saved a total of 855.215 tonnes of CO2e from being emitted into the atmosphere