Curing waste management ills

With the healthcare sector continuing to experience spending cuts, the need for healthcare providers and their cleaning partners to reduce costs and improve efficiency is ever present. June Clafton of bpi.healthcare explains how a simple and free audit service can help organisations to identify simple ways of achieving savings

Bpi.healthcare has been a major supplier of disposable polythene products such as clinical waste sacks, refuse sacks, aprons and bedding protection to the NHS and wider healthcare sector for almost 20 years.Over this time,we have acquired considerable expertise and we are now using this hard-won knowledge to benefit the entire healthcare community.

Our audit service has been specifically designed to alleviate some of the pressure healthcare providers face thanks to dramatically reduced budgets. It aims to help them cut costs without sacrificing on either product performance or ultimately, patient care.

The potential to save £1000s How the bpi.healthcare audit service works is simple. It entails a member of our nationwide team visiting the provider to supply a quick, free and no-obligation consultation.

During this process, they assess every aspect of the provider's existing polythene product usage - from product quality and specification to working practices and supply arrangements - to identify where improvements, rationalisations and savings can be made.

Considering the sheer variety and volume of disposable polythene products used by modern hospitals, care homes, GP surgeries and other healthcare establishments, if we can deliver small savings in just a few of these areas, those savings soon mount up.

Improvements in many areas Of all the different aspects our audit service focuses on, one of the most vital is whether providers are using the right polythene product for a given application.Many organisations continue to use products that are over specified resulting in excessive costs.We can suggest where lower cost alternatives can and sometimes should be used to help organisations reduce their spend.

Plus, as well as helping providers to cut the direct costs of their polythene product usage, our audits can also help them to reduce indirect costs.Take the topical issue of correct waste segregation as an example.

In a recent report,The Royal College of Nursing stated that the NHS could save as much as £5million a year just by properly segregating its waste.Currently,many providers are sending non-infectious waste for incineration - the most expensive disposal method - when it could actually be sent directly to landfill, which is significantly cheaper.

To help facilitate better waste segregation and improve waste stream management,we can make recommendations, offer advice and also provide suitable products - all of which help to save on disposal costs.

Invaluable advice Thanks to the far reaching and considerable benefits of our audit service, it's been warmly welcomed by providers on both the public and private side of the sector. Most have been amazed by just how profound the savings and improvements can be.

Ultimately,when it comes to polythene product usage,many healthcare providers adopt certain ways of working or certain product choices because they may not be fully aware of their options or alternatives.Quite understandably, they don't have the time to stay abreast of the latest advances in areas such as polythene product performance or manufacturing technology.