Green bloc, sustainable development in operating rooms

For over a year, the team in the South operating block at Caen Normandy University Hospital has been implementing an eco-responsible approach. These actions were extended to all operating blocks in November 2022 with the "Green Block" project, which aims to establish practices that contribute to sustainable development and eco-friendly healthcare.

A surgical operation generates on average 27kg of waste, which is equivalent to the amount produced by a family of 4 people in one week.

Based on this observation, Stéphanie Deryckere, an anesthesiologist in the South block, member of the establishment's "waste" committee and of the SFAR* sustainable development committee, initiated with the help of Geoffrey Lecoq from the sustainable development group a sustainable development project subsequently mobilizing the teams of all the blocks, in order to reduce their ecological impact.

* French Society of Anesthesia and Intensive Care.

A multi-professional mobilization

Several meetings were held with all members of the operating rooms, the sustainable development group of the University Hospital, hospital pharmacy practitioners and members ofhospital hygiene in order to implement targeted actions to improve practices and raise awareness among staff.

The "green bloc" group includes representatives in each sector: doctors, stretcher-bearers, nurses, and nursing assistants. Appointed on a voluntary basis, they come from the surgical and anesthesiology departments to have a comprehensive view, disseminate information, and implement green initiatives within each of their blocks.

Key actions in service of the environment

Staff re-education on waste sorting (communication and re-posting campaign)
Recycling of certain plastics with the association "Les Bouchons du Calvados"; and recycling of single-use metals (laryngoscope blades, scalpel cables and pulse oximeters, aluminum packaging). It should be noted that this waste recycling program was made possible thanks to the volunteer work of the operating room staff.
Implementation of a waste reduction policy through the reassessment of equipment and its necessity of use, and the use of reusable equipment rather than single-use equipment;
Implementation of a policy to reduce anesthetic gases (a true ecological disaster).

Eco-designing healthcare means creating a treatment with a reduced impact on health, economics, society, and the environment in the short, medium, and long term, with the aim of reducing the energy and ecological footprint associated with healthcare, without compromising the quality of care. This pragmatic approach also aims to better consider harmful environmental discharges such as pharmaceutical residues (water pollution) and the use of anesthetic gases with a high global warming potential, and therefore greenhouse gas emissions.