Green bloc, sustainable development in operating theaters

For more than a year, the team from the South operating theater at Caen Normandy University Hospital has initiated an eco-responsible approach. These actions extended to all blocks in November 2022 with the “Green bloc” project which aims to establish practices contributing to sustainable development and eco-care.

A surgical operation generates on average 27kg of waste, the equivalent of the quantity produced by a family of 4 people in a week.

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

* French Society of Anesthesia and Intensive Care.

Multi-professional mobilization

pharmacy practitioners and members of hospital hygiene in order to implement targeted actions to improve practices and raise awareness. the staff.

The “green bloc” group includes representatives in each sector: doctors, stretcher bearers, nurses, caregivers. Appointed on a voluntary basis, they come from the surgical and anesthetist sides in order to have a global vision, disseminate information and deploy green actions within each of their blocks.

Flagship actions serving the environment

Re-education of staff on waste sorting (communication and re-display action)
Recycling of certain plastics with the association “Les Bouchons du Calvados”; and revaluation of single-use metals (laryngoscope blade, scalpel cable and saturometer, aluminum packaging). Note that this waste recycling process was made possible thanks to the volunteers of the operating theater teams.
Implementation of a waste reduction policy through the reassessment of equipment and its need for use and the use of reusable equipment rather than single use;
Implementation of a policy to reduce anesthetic gases (a real ecological disaster).

Eco-designing a treatment means providing treatment with a lower impact on the health, economic, social and environmental levels in the short, medium and long term with the aim of reducing the energy and ecological impact associated with the treatment, without harming the quality of care. This pragmatic approach also aims to better take into consideration discharges harmful to the environment such as drug residues (aquatic pollution) and the use of anesthetic gases with a high global warming potential and therefore emitters of greenhouse gases. .