Single use PPE used by healthcare professionals

Brighton and Sussex Medical School (BSMS) has called on the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) to give environmental and social sustainability greater consideration in their regulation of medical devices in the UK.

Members of bodies including several UK Surgical Royal Colleges, the Centre for Sustainable Healthcare,and the UK Health Alliance on Climate Change have joined BSMS in submitting a letter to the MHRA as part of their recent consultation on future regulation.

Prof Mahmood Bhutta, Chair of ENT at BSMS and Director of the Centre for Sustainable Healthcare, said: "We know that some of the greatest environmental and labour rights risks to the NHS arise from the supply of products. For example, our analyses reveal that single-use products account for up to 70% of the carbon footprint of a surgical operation. While at times there may be regulatory or other reasons why a single use product is preferred, sometimes it is the industry promoting single-use products and a linear economy.  Our data show that reuse and repair of medical equipment almost universally reduces their carbon footprint and financial cost, and so we need more products designed to be used multiple times, and designed to last.

"We also know that some external suppliers represent a reputational risk to the NHS through risk of labour rights abuse, for example the use of sweatshop and child labour in Pakistan to produce surgical instruments, and endemic forced immigrant labour in Malaysia to produce medical gloves.

"Our lack of knowledge and transparency in the supply of products hampers our ability to understand and mitigate the harms they may cause. We have therefore called on the MHRA to include two additional requirements for manufacturers as part of future regulatory frameworks."

The MHRA is asked to consider amending Chapter 13 of the regulations, which focuses on environmental sustainability and public health impacts, firstly by requiring manufacturers to state where their product (or its major components) is manufactured. Secondly, they are asked to require all manufacturers to state how the product and all of its components have been manufactured to maximise their reuse and repair, and to maximise compatibility across platforms and manufacturers - with all such statements made public and open to scrutiny.