Authors (including presenting author) :
Wong YL, Ng KY, Ho HC, Young AL
Affiliation :
Ophthalmology & Visual Sciences, Prince of Wales Hospital
Introduction :
Cataract surgery is one of the most commonly performed procedures in the Department of Ophthalmology & Visual Sciences in NTEC. More than 4,000 numbers of cataract surgeries were done in last financial year which will be inevitably increased with the aging population. Per cataract surgery, it created medical waste including but not limited to: the scrubbing materials, double wrappers of each sterile instrument sets, capsules of huge amount sterile consumables and single use plastic cassette. The production and disposal of the products in cataract surgery imposed enormous challenges to our environment. Therefore, there is an imperative for quick action to recognize and respond to reduce the production of wastes and use the resources more effectively.
Objectives :
1) To classify and recycle the medical wastes
2) To reduce single-used items and unnecessary sterile drapes
Methodology :
A task force was set up in 4Q 2023 consisting nurses, hospital administrative staff and cleansing contractor. They were invited to have a site visit to discuss the feasibility of recycle of dispose in Eye Ambulatory Care Centre/Operating Theatre (EACC/OT). We discussed about which materials could be recycled, how to classify the products, site of collection and the workflow. Finally, two labeled waste collectors were created. One was for paper and the other was for plastic materials.
By adopting the concept of “reduce”, the practice was changed from single-use to multiple-use under the principle of aseptic technique. As a result, one bottle of drug can be used for 4-5 patients undergoing cataract surgeries. In addition, the huge amount of disposal sterile drapes was also reviewed. One of the sterile drapes with the size 75x90cm can be deleted which was an unnecessary operating room waste. Besides, the patient’s sterile body drape was shortened from 183x200cm to 180x150cm. Therefore, the total amount of surgical waste for each case was reduced.
Result & Outcome :
The waste recycling was fully implemented since Nov 2023. EACC/OT calculated a savings of 5.4kg paper and 3.3kg plastic with 8.7kg in total a day (1914 Kg / year!!!). The wastes could be separated and collected by contractors and recycled into new materials or products. Earth’s resources could be sustained continuously. The reduce the number of total surgical waste for each case by eliminating the unnecessary surgical waste to achieve greener surgical practices. Green practices was successfully fostered and sustained among operating team including doctors, nurses and supporting staff.
