Vanguard Medical Device Remanufacturing
Healthcare is a major contributor to the global climate crisis and waste production. There is significant recognition of this across all avenues of healthcare from commissioners to providers and including suppliers. The good news is that there is appetite to change this negative scenario with many people within the sector actively looking to change for the better.
About
Whilst there is much to do, one solution is single use medical device remanufacturing. Currently these single use devices (SUD's) are constructed using earthly resources, sent to a hospital where they are used on 1 patient and then binned - disposal section of the 'Waste Hierarchy'. Remanufacturing these devices instead of sending to waste, adds circularity to the end of that process and shifts the process to reuse within the hierarchy.
The benefits to a hospital of doing this are two fold;
1. Reducing Healthcares Environmental Footprint
- Reducing waste
- Reducing C02
- Reducing demand on raw materials
2. Savings
- Payment for collected devices
- Remanufactured devices are significantly cost effective versus new
- Savings via reduction in waste
Remanufacturing of single use medical devices is commonplace in other parts of the world such as the US, Canada, EU, Japan, Israel, etc. Based on MHRA guidelines in 2016, remanufacturing is a growing entity in the UK. Vanguard is the largest company in the EU who provide this service and are now well established in the UK and is ready to serve your Cath Labs or Theatre Suite.
