In 2020, NHS England launched it’s
‘For a greener NHS’ campaign and a roadmap towards becoming the world’s first net-zero public health service. it was to be a significant contribution to carbon emissions reduction, as NHS England was, at the time, producing about 4% of the UK’s carbon emissions.
With suppliers clamouring to do business with healthcare trusts, only those who signed up to meet NHS targets stood a chance and many NHS procurement teams used this to their advantage. But then something happened that was to change things significantly.
MDR Forces Net-Zero To Take A Back Seat
For their products to be legally placed on the European market, medical device manufacturers had to comply with the requirements of the Medical Device Directive (MDD). In May 2021, this was replaced by new Medical Device Regulations (MDR) and manufacturers have been given a deadline of May 2024 to obtain MDR certification.
To add to their pressure, it is estimated that about 90% of existing MDD certificates will expire before the deadline. This, and a shortage of Notified Bodies who can issue certificates, is creating a backlog in the certification process that could see medical device manufacturers not meeting the deadline.
As a result, procurement teams no longer have the whip hand on imposing carbon reduction targets on suppliers: they are having to look to manufacturers who will be able to guarantee supplies of certified products following the May 2024 deadline.
Avena Offers Healthcare Trusts A Carbon Reduction Lifeline
Scope 3 carbon reduction applies to emissions created by providers of services to the NHS; this includes waste management and by extension, secure document destruction.
The prime consideration for healthcare trusts when choosing secure document destruction service providers is the protection of sensitive data – patients’ personal data and medical records. And this is something that many healthcare trusts have already entrusted to Avena.
Fully compliant with
BS EN: 15713-2009 Code of Practice, we ensure that all documents containing confidential data are protected from the moment they are disposed of. Our consoles prevent access to documents and are emptied by our
BS7858 security-vetted and DBS-checked personnel. They are then transported by our fleet of CCTV and real-time satellite tracking protected vehicles to our dedicated shredding facility, where they are reduced to small GDPR-compliant particles.
But healthcare trusts are also realising the environmental benefits of
SECURALL®, our secure document destruction and recycling service. With several departments operating across a hospital campus, we commonly find they are paying for a ‘floor walk’ service. Under this arrangement, the contractor visits the site at regular intervals and literally walks around the entire estate, emptying each waste paper console. Often, many of them are empty or only partially full, but the trust pays a ‘per bin’ charge regardless.
With Securall, departmental staff directly notify Avena via an integrated portal on the hospital’s intranet when a console is full. This allows us to schedule collections more intelligently, only empty bins that are full, decrease the frequency of visits and reduce overall carbon footprint. You can
read a typical case study here.
For further information on
SECURALL® and how we can protect your data and help you to work more carbon-efficiently, contact Avena Group on
0845 5219 892 or via our
website.
