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Green endoscopy: a call to action

At the Central Sterilising Club (CSC) Autumn study day, on the 10th October 2022, in Manchester, sustainability was high on the agenda. The event included some thought-provoking discussions on how the environmental impact of decontamination and endoscopy departments could be minimised. Louise Frampton reports.

Speaking at the CSC Autumn study day, Professor Bu’Hussain Hayee, professor of gastroenterology at King’s College London (KCL), gave a call to action to join the ‘movement for sustainable practice’. He explained that endoscopy is the third highest generator of waste in healthcare.1,2 There are a number of reasons for this: endoscopy involves a high throughput of cases; it has multiple nonrenewable waste streams; it requires resourceheavy decontamination processes; and it involves numerous hospital visits for patients and relatives.

Each endoscopy generates 2.1kg of disposable waste (46L volume)2 and most of this waste goes to landfill (64%). Biohazardous waste accounts for around 28%, while only 9% of waste is recycled. There is significant room for improvement, therefore. The WHO is calling for action and states that the majority of healthcare waste should be recycled. But to support this, more data is required. 

“There are huge efforts in the fields of gastroenterology and endoscopy in the past few years, so data will support our practice in the future,” Prof. Hayee commented. 

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Upcoming Events

Continence Care and Tissue Viability Conference

Grand Station Wolverhampton
21 June 2023

Hygiene and sustainability in endoscopy: finding the balance

Online Event
Thursday 22nd June 2023

EBME Expo 2023

Judds Lane, Coventry, England, GB, CV6 6
28th - 29th June 2023

AfPP Annual Conference 2023

University of York
10- 13 August 2023

MEDICA - Leading International Trade Fair

Schadowstraße 49, 40212 Düsseldorf, Germany
13- 16 November 2023

Future Surgery

Excel Centre London
14 - 15 November 2023

Access the latest issue of Clinical Services Journal on your mobile device together with an archive of back issues.

Download the FREE Clinical Services Journal app from your device's App store

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