Skanska’s facilities management people working on the Barts Health NHS Trust waste management contract have helped the healthcare provider to scoop a Health Service Journal facilities and estates management award.
Described by the judges of the national awards as an ‘exemplar waste compliance and staff behavioural change project’ the team worked with hospital staff to reduce the cost and amount of clinical waste, by ensuring waste is disposed of appropriately.
Since launching an education programme across the trust estate in 2011, which incorporates five different hospital sites, the initiative has saved more than £3.5m and raised the segregation compliance rate from 83.2 per cent to 92.2 per cent.
The team has completed more than 712,000 bin audits, with 32,200 waste audits being sent to departments since 2014. This has improved the sorting rate so that more than 70 per cent of waste previously sorted as ‘clinical’ is now classified as ‘offensive’, making it more cost-effective to remove and reducing costs.
Over 12,000 staff have completed the waste behavioural change training and in 2014 the customer was the first NHS trust to receive the Carbon Trust Standard for reducing waste.
The team has continued to brief colleagues on how to reduce clinical waste through team talks and presentations. They even held a health waste awareness day to engage trust workers, where they demonstrated how changing behaviours could save considerable funds. They also continue to provide regular updates on key performance indicators, broken down to each ward, area and location, to enable people to track their progress, recognising and awarding exemplar individual and team performances each year.
Liam Hogg, Head of Waste for Skanska on the contract, said: “The award is great external recognition for the ongoing efforts of the team regarding how we have, and continue to, educate our customer’s people about waste. Knowing how to segregate it saves money for the trust, which can instead be spent on essential patient care and the latest medical facilities.”