Canada has published new guidelines to help operating rooms improve environmental sustainability.
As the Canadian health care system produces almost 5% of the country’s greenhouse gas emissions and 200,000 tonnes of other pollutants, many of which are generated in ORs, it makes sense to focus on reducing these harms.
An evidence-based guideline that updates the 2020 guidance outlines 21 recommendations, including:
• Reducing energy use by switching off lights and heating when not in use
• Using reusable surgical devices and gowns
• Developing recycling programmes
• Rethinking the disposal of unused supplies and older devices.
A multidisciplinary team of clinicians, administrators, environmental specialists, and patient partners developed the guideline.
Funding was provided by the Department of Surgery and the Collaborative Centre for Climate, Health & Sustainable Care at the University of Toronto.
Dr Sarah Ward, an orthopaedic surgeon at St. Michael’s Hospital at Unity Health Toronto and assistant professor, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, with co-authors writes: ‘Adopting these recommendations will generally confer both environmental and financial benefits, and will often also benefit the people providing and receiving care.’
Successful implementation will require tailored strategies, and not all recommendations will be feasible for every hospital, they write.
They list the possible barriers to implementation of these recommendations, including:
• Limited resources (financial, time, and personnel)
• Staff buy-in
• Site-specific restrictions (access to reusable sharps containers, portable nitrous oxide canisters)
• Administrative restrictions (OR occupancy sensors, current purchase agreements, space restrictions).
The guideline team hopes that hospitals and surgical departments will act on the recommendations.
‘Given the large environmental impact of ORs and the danger to human health represented by climate change and other global ecological challenges, we urge those involved in providing surgical care to review this guideline carefully and adopt as many recommendations as are feasible within their own organisations,’ they conclude.
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