Dartford and Gravesham NHS Trust (DGT) is thrilled to be working to reduce our impact on the environment and deliver sustainable healthcare as part of the Trust Green Plan.

To support this, as part of our ‘Project Greener Anaesthesia’ initiative, DGT has been looking into how we can reduce emissions associated with anaesthetic and analgesic practices, as these account for 2% of the NHS carbon footprint.  There are many safe anaesthetic alternatives that have a significantly reduced impact on global warming and we have been exploring these different options.

As a result, we are extremely proud to announce that we are the first Trust in Kent to decommission desflurane, which is an anaesthetic used to put patients to sleep safely during surgery but has a global warming potential 2,500 times greater than carbon dioxide. The Trust has sourced 18 new pumps to implement total intravenous anaesthesia (TIVA) which uses a combination of agents administered exclusively via an intravenous syringe pump rather than inhalation.

This is a fantastic achievement as in the financial year 2021/2022, the Trust used 22,260ml of desflurane, the equivalent to 82,832kg of carbon dioxide. By decommissioning this particular anaesthetic, we are dramatically reducing our CO2 emissions.

Speaking of the achievement, DGT’s Locum Consultant in Anaesthesia and Intensive Care, Dr Daniel Lake, said: “We should all be very proud of our achievements at moving towards a Greener NHS and the key to the rapid rollout of these changes has been team working. The buy in from all members of staff has been overwhelming, including students, allied health professionals, clinicians, estates team and management. Without this passion, enthusiasm and multidisciplinary working, we would not be able to make the rapid progress on these projects that we have seen over the last few months. There are lots of future projects underway and I encourage any staff to bring forward any sustainability ideas.”

And this is just the start for Project Greener Anaesthesia at DGT. The Trust is committed to working towards reducing greenhouse gas emissions through decreasing the use of nitrous oxide, as this has 300 times more impact on the environment compared with carbon dioxide. The project is also looking at reducing waste through addressing drug and clinical wastage, patient gown and paper hat waste and exploring ways to increase recycling. The project also aims to decrease paper use through the digitalisation of anaesthetic charts and has already achieved a paperless obstetric anaesthetic record of clinics, interventions and follow ups. We also aim to condense the amount of patient hospital visits by implementing a one-stop shop for surgical pre-assessments.

The Trust is very optimistic about our plans to reduce emissions and improve sustainability overall. You can learn more about our Green Plan and sustainability agenda here: https://www.dgt.nhs.uk/about-us/green-plan

If you would like more information or find out how you can get involved with our initiatives, please contact Carolyn Lewis, Director of Estates, Facilities and Capital Projects, on dgn-tr.trustrepresentative@nhs.net