Southland Hospital has initiated a recycling programme for its used clinical equipment.

Quality and Performance Improvement Facilitator Nicky McNaught, who is working on a six-month quality improvement project, said they were still in the very early stages but had in the past two weeks filled their first wheelie bin.

Equipment being targeted inludes Continuous Positive Airway Pressure Machines (used to treat people with sleep apnea), Home Monitors (used for remote monitoring of people with implantable cardiac defibrillators), Oxygen Concentrators (units for people who need oxygen support) and Infusion Pumps (used to deliver fluids and medications into a patient).

The products were selected because there is a reasonable volume of them that are used and turned over.

“My hope is that once my project is finished the teams will be able to self-manage this and it will become a self-sustaining recycling project," McNaught said.

“It is about reducing, reusing, and recycling where it is practical."

"I like to think we can create a change in how we operate because the health sector does create a lot of waste and we need to start thinking about the impact that has.”

McNaught hoped the project would eventually expanded to include other sites in the Southern district, and potentially include more products to be recycled.