A nationwide call for new and exciting medical technology has been answered, with 10 firms being awarded a total of £1 million in funding to aid in the NHS' transition to net-zero.
Healthcare drone concept. Credit: Es sarawuth / Shutterstock
Eco-friendly drones that deliver healthcare services in the field has been included in the Greener NHS Programme's finalists. Credit: Es sarawuth / Shutterstock
Dished out by SBRI Healthcare, the applicants were whittled down to their final number from an original pool of 46 covering a range of companies, from tech startups to NHS Trusts and small businesses.
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With the climate crisis offering a present threat to public health, the NHS has been exploring ways to cut emissions. Air pollution kills between 28,000 and 36,000 people annually, increasing the chance of asthma, cancer and heart disease, according to a 2019 report by Public Health England.
The challenges presented by climate change are also set to test the resilience of healthcare systems and the provision of services.
In October 2020 the Greener NHS Programme set the target of achieving net-zero carbon emissions by 2040 - becoming the first public healthcare provider to do so globally.
To this end, the pathway to carbon-neutrality has been laid out in four steps:
- reducing emissions from surgical pathways, which could make resource use more efficient
- reducing emissions from transport and travel, known as "care miles"
- reducing nitrous oxide emissions - a gas commonly used for pain relief and sedation
- tech and tools to support a reduction in emissions across supply chains
In the competition, the Greener NHS programme asked applicants to display the impact on carbon emissions while offering the complexity of the systems needed to operate a healthcare provider, with an emphasis on making operations more efficient.
They should demonstrate how they will maintain and improve the overall delivery of healthcare and health outcomes within the NHS.
The project is expected to run for up to six months, in which time the applicants will prove their tech can be scaled-up through further prototyping and development.
Applicants include Envirolieve by Elegant Design and Solutions Ltd which was awarded £99,000 to reduce Entonox consumption through a novel delivery system. Anaesthetic gases alone are responsible for over 2% of all NHS emissions.
Revolution-ZERO by Rutherford Research was also awarded £99,000 to design reusable textiles to reduce active waste from PPE and surgical tools used during the roughly 11,500,000 surgical procedures across the UK.
Other finalists include a carbon engagement tool designed to help NHS staff minimise emissions in both their lifestyles and work; an app that allows clinicians to deal with patients while minimising emissions; and "Project Angel", a drone service designed to provide low-energy healthcare service to patients in the field - currently only available in Northumbria.
"Delivering a net-zero NHS is a key ambition to tackle within the healthcare system and it was great to see so many diverse innovations applying to the SBRI Healthcare programme to make an impact on the carbon emissions and align themselves to the NHS ambitions and more generally, commit to sustainable changes," said Glenn Wells, chair of the SBRI board and Chief Partnerships Officer of the UK's Medicine and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA).
The long-term aim is for successful technologies to be adopted for use in the NHS where they can provide benefits for patients, the NHS itself and the overall community, whilst also reducing emissions.
"It’s fantastic to see the wide range of organisations engaged with the first net-zero focused SBRI Healthcare competition", said Nick Watts, Chief Sustainability Officer, NHS England and NHS Improvement.
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"Innovation is key to developing new tools and technologies to deliver a net-zero NHS and investment will encourage action, reduce the costs of decarbonisation across the sector and improve health and care now and for generations to come".
View the full list of competition winners and allocated funding on the SBRI website.
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