Hi,
I'm wondering if anyone has any resources they can share that have been used in your workplaces to communicate initiatives with staff, such as reducing couch roll or other products e.g. gloves. Have you used education materials on where it should be used; posters, comms or campaign materials; desktop messages etc?
We would be interested in any resources you have used to get the messaging out to your staff.
I have been working with our IPC team and podiatry team leads to try to get a reduction in single use items - this poster has been shared with the podiatry team in the staff meeting and team update e-mails, but not much reduction in use as of yet!
I agree we could use less and just wipe down the surfaces between patients for less intensive situations. It’s a lot of paper just thrown away. Also prob could just go into normal waste rather than clinical waste unless visibly contaminated.
Our trust have masked a lot of couch roll on supply chain. I agree William if not visbly contaminated should go in normal waste.
I just finished a project on removing couch roll from the Physiotherapy outpatient department at University Hospitals Plymouth. I read the attached report from Great Western Hospitals and used their research to begin the discussion around use of couch roll in our department. Management were resistant to the idea because it had been looked at and rejected a few years ago because they didn't believe staff had time to wipe the beds in between patients. I contacted our sustainability team and infection prevention team who confirmed that other departments have had it removed as an option on stock orders and it doesn't prevent infection. We did a walk around the department to assess the feasibility, then conducted a month trial with wipes instead of couch roll and now it's been removed.
I would be happy to share our project report with the financial and environmental benefits if that would help.
Yes please , that would be really helpful. My email address is melanie.broach1@nhs.net