As part of our commitment to the Wellbeing of Future Generations Act (2015) and to help Welsh Government reach their target of net zero carbon emissions within the public sector by 2030, we are working on many different projects and initiatives to deliver more sustainable healthcare. One of these projects is the Nitrous Oxide Project which aims to reduce our environmental and financial impact by supplying anaesthetic nitrous oxide gas to our wards by portable cylinders instead of the older piped systems.
The Nitrous Oxide Project will save around 1 million litres of nitrous oxide per year, the equivalent to 535 tonnes of CO2. Our aim is to spread this project across Wales and achieve a culture shift away from N2O use. Following a successful pilot at the Noah’s Ark Children’s Hospital for Wales, we are rolling out the use of small nitrous oxide cylinders. This pilot proved that delivery of the gas through this method is more efficient than piping the gas throughout a hospital. There are further gains to be made from moving over to a portable cylinder supply, such as reduced spend on the gas as less is used.
At University Hospital Llandough we have installed portable nitrous oxide cylinders on trolleys, one will be available per clinical theatre area. As a result of this we are decommissioning the nitrous oxide manifold at UHL at the start of April. Please note that the nitrous oxide manifold is to remain in place in Dental with no plan to change the delivery of nitrous oxide to this area.
For further information on this project, please contact [email protected] or [email protected].