Government announces ‘crackdown on NHS waste’

The Government is launching a major crackdown on waste in the NHS to save millions of pounds a year, helping to divert more resources to frontline care. A new strategy - The Design for Life Roadmap — has been published to radically cut the number of single-use medical devices in the health service and reduce reliance on foreign imports.

Disposable medical devices substantially contribute to the 156,000 tonnes of clinical waste that the NHS produces every year in England alone. The roadmap paves the way to cutting this waste and maximising reuse, remanufacture and recycling in the NHS. According to the Government, doing so will create thousands more UK jobs and help transform the country into a life sciences superpower. As it stands, millions of devices, such as walking aids and surgical instruments, are thrown away after just one use. For example, harmonic shears each cost more than £500 and around 90% are binned after a single use. Innovative companies are already purchasing these used devices and safely remanufacturing them at a lower price.

The Government says it will encourage more of this kind of innovation to safely remanufacture a wider range of products and drive costs down, including by changing procurement rules to incentivise reusable products and rolling out examples where hospitals are already leading the way on cutting wasteful spending and practices.