Kerry Dolan discusses how hospitals could develop eco-friendly endoscopy practices and contribute to greener and more sustainable healthcare.
The COVID-19 pandemic changed 2020 in ways that we had never seen before. While most of us would agree that the pandemic hasn’t presented many advantages, a surprising upshot of the COVID era is some earth healing environmental reimbursements
According to a recent article published in The Lancet, 1 the call for sustainability amid COVID-19 has increased after witnessing the changes during the lockdown period. The lockdown has been, for most, a restrictive and worrying time, but in these flight and traffic reduced months, the planet has undoubtedly reaped the benefits. All is not forgiven, however, as COVID-19 has not only gifted us a global recession to deal with but also an increased impact on waste. Take a walk down your street and you will undoubtedly see several used face masks idling the pathway.
According to the article, the NHS accounts for 5.4% of the UK’s carbon dioxide emissions.2 Endoscopy is a major contributor to this amount, generating 3.09 kg of waste per bed, per day.3
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