Opinion piece – Sustainability and Vend
Posted in Announcement, News
Those of you that attended the Define training session that we ran in October (and those already familiar with the system), may have taken a look at the Sustainability node in the Define and Refine systems and seen the reports* on volatile anaesthetics, N2O and inhaler devices. There is good, robust, linked evidence for these so we have rolled out the reporting. But why no more?
There is a lot of work ongoing with calculation of reference data for medicines’ carbon footprint and There is also plenty of debate within pharmacy, driven by the NHS requirements on sustainability reporting as to how best to ‘declare’ medicines. The situation is not simple (these things never are!) mainly as the science is young and there is no consensus as to what is an accurate representation of a many factored manufacturing and transport process (though BSI are working on this).
This creates challenges in publication of sustainability reports and there is concern that clinical / formulary choices maybe taken where all factors aren’t yet clear. The German’s have a word for this: “verschlimmbessern” which effectively translates to ‘while trying to improve things, they are made worse’. The counterpoint to this argument is that until we start working with the data (accepting the caveats / limitations / challenges), there will be little scrutiny and debate to allow the science to mature.
So do we find ourselves in Catch 22? No, I believe not. The reports that are included in Rx-info reporting are high impact in terms of carbon footprint and are well supported with published evidence. These can also be effectively monitored and alternatives are in place so as not to impact patient care.
Wastage is also an area in which there is clear consensus that when reduced, there is less carbon (and cash) impacts. Rx-info offer the Vend system which allows hospitals to offer excess or near expiry stock to their peers. There are real benefits of doing this both financially (minimising losses and offering at reduced cost to NHS peers) and not sending medicines into the environment as waste. With the weekly or daily synopsis of availability (think of websites that suggest your next book based against your reading history) you can also see what your organisation needs that is available on the system. £7m of stock has passed through the system already and usage is increasing across England and Scotland.
We are actively engaged with the debate around medicines’ sustainability reporting so will update the userbase and reports as soon as we can.
What are your thoughts on this? Debate here: LinkedIn
*Requires an HSCN connection and Rx-info log in