BDA members Faith Toogood and Sarah Brook have been shortlisted for the Chief Allied Health Professions Officer (CAHPO) Greener AHP Award 2024. Here we look at their initiatives and how green schemes are helping the NHS care for patients in a more sustainable way.
The award, which is presented by Greener NHS recognises allied health professionals working as a team and individually to develop or deliver an initiative which improves environmental impact, for example carbon reduction projects or increasing equipment reuse.
Faith, who is a dietitian and works at Royal Cornwall Hospitals NHS Trust, developed a project that recycles enteral feed bottles on critical care wards, and through the creation of a separate waste stream, repurposes these bottles into domestic milk bottles. This project not only makes better use of a precious resource but carries with it financial benefits for the NHS. It is hoped with ongoing evaluation of the project, it can be rolled out across healthcare services nationally.
Sarah, Gastroenterology and Nutrition Support Dietitian at Locala Health and Wellbeing based in Batley, has been shortlisted for their newly-diagnosed coeliac disease patient information for dietetic outpatients. An educational video has been developed in collaboration with Coeliac UK which is sent to patients on the day of their referral. This video has achieved a reduction in carbon emissions (105Kg) by reducing travel to the health centre and reducing printed handouts and room energy emissions. Their time to treat patients has reduced from 12 to 0 weeks, and waiting times for other patients have been more than halved. Because of optimised sustainability both to the environment and to the service, the project continues with ongoing evaluation and there are plans to roll it out to other local patient populations within and outside of dietetics.
We wish them the best of luck at the CAHPO Awards, which will be presented in October.
Are you working on anything in your department that promotes sustainability? Please let us know and we can highlight your project with members.
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