The government has launched a major crackdown on waste in the NHS as part of an effort to save money and support the government’s net zero goals, the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) has announced.
The new strategy, called the Design for Life Roadmap, set out the aim of transitioning away from all avoidable single-use medtech products by 2045. These currently ‘substantially’ contribute to the 156,000 tonnes of clinical waste produced by the NHS every year, according to the DHSC.
The roadmap set out 30 actions across six key challenges (see box) to deliver this 2045 vision, and said the DHSC will work with the UK health services and other partners to agree action leads and governance mechanisms to ‘underpin’ the delivery, alongside a costed delivery plan.
Six problems set out by the Design for Life Roadmap
Leadership and alignment
Statement 1: unclear direction and misaligned strategies across the value chain lead to inconsistencies, inefficiencies and inertia, hindering meaningful, coordinated progress.
Behavioural change
Statement 2: the medtech landscape is one in which linear products are the default choice, maintained by a lack of value placed on circular systems and limited support for change.
Commercial incentivisation
Statement 3: stakeholders are insufficiently incentivised, or in some instances are disincentivised to choose and deliver circular solutions.
Regulations and standards
Statement 4: UK regulatory regimes and technical standards predate circularity and have potential to further enable the medtech sector to recognise opportunities and align internationally.
Physical and digital infrastructure
Statement 5: the existing physical and digital infrastructure and supporting services hold back the scaling of circular solutions, both locally and nationally.
Transformative innovation
Statement 6: the innovation ecosystem is not tailored to circular objectives, impeding development of solutions.
Source: DHSC
Devices like walking aids and surgical instruments are currently thrown away after just one use, but the government hopes to encourage innovation to safely remanufacture a wider range of products.
The DHSC gave examples of where innovations are currently being made. These included harmonic shears, a surgical device that seal wounds using ultrasound waves. These are £500 per device and 90% of them are thrown away after one use. However, some companies are purchasing these devices and remanufacturing them at a lower price.
In Northampton Hospitals NHS Trust, an Ophthalmology department saved 1,000 pairs of disposable scissors and £12,000 in a year by switching to reusable pairs, while Leeds Teaching Hospitals Trust saved £76,610 purchasing 604 remanufactured Electrophysiology (EP) Catheters, and generated £22,923 by selling used devices for collection.
Health secretary Wes Streeting said: ‘The NHS is broken. It is the mission of this government to get it back on its feet, and we can’t afford a single penny going to waste.
‘Because the NHS deals in the billions, too often it doesn’t think about the millions. That has to change. This government inherited a £22 billion blackhole in the public finances, so we will have a laser-like focus on getting better value for taxpayers’ money.
‘Every year, millions of expensive medical devices are chucked in the bin after being used just once. We are going to work closely with our medical technology industry, to eliminate waste and support homegrown medtech and equipment.’
Health minister Baroness Gillian Merron added: ‘Design for Life doesn’t just deliver on the Health Mission, to build an NHS fit for the future, it also delivers on our growth mission to make the UK a life science superpower and our commitment to get the NHS to net zero by 2045.’
Professor Sir Stephen Powis, national medical director of NHS England, said: ‘While the NHS is treating record numbers of patients, we know there is much more to do to ensure taxpayers get value for money.
‘The NHS made a record £7.25bn worth of efficiency savings last year and is targeting a further £9bn of savings for 2024/25. But we are rightly still looking for ways to get our money’s worth for every penny we spend.’
In May, Healthcare Leader looked at the progress so far on the NHS’s road to net zero emissions in our NHS and climate change report, including initiatives to reduce single-plastic use across ICSs.
