Marc Yerrell, deputy manager for support services in Milton Keynes Hospital, is a Change Day champion who has led two successful campaigns to make a change for the better. We will be sharing Marc’s stories over the next two days. For today’s story, Marc tells us how recycling has saved the hospital nearly £20,000.Recycling has become a part of our daily lives: taking things we no longer want or need to give to others to reuse, recycle or even ‘up-cycle’.
At Milton Keynes Hospital, staff believe they can do more, and the hospital has become a ‘pre-loved champion’. This ‘pre-loved’ project ensures unwanted furniture and equipment (such as desks, chairs, and filing cabinets) in the hospital finds a new home elsewhere in the hospital. Staff are encouraged to look at the pre-loved catalogue on the trust intranet for furniture and supplies before buying something new.
Preloved is now an established function at Milton Keynes Hospital NHS Foundation Trust. Wards and departments use the service on a daily basis to either remove or acquire items of furniture like desks and chairs.
The project has the potential to save the Trust £20,000 in the first year alone – money that can be ploughed back into providing patient care. Since launching the scheme, we have saved just over £19,000 and we will hit our £20,000 target in January 2015.
Another initiative developed from the ‘uniform recycling’ project already in place. Old unwanted uniforms are sent to a recycling point, and the Trust gets money per kilogram of clothes. This has developed into a Trust-wide initiative to recycle, reuse and pass on unwanted clothes.
For NHS Change Day 2014, members of staff were being asked to bring in one or more items of unwanted clothing and to drop them off at a collection points located around the hospital. These items were sorted and sold on NHS Change Day as part of a ‘Pre-Loved Clothes Sale’. At the sale, staff and members of the public had the opportunity to buy these ‘pre-loved’ clothes for a donation to the Milton Keynes Hospital Charity, which raises money to fund items for all patients that are outside the scope of NHS funds. The sale and collection was supported by hospital staff and other volunteers.
The campaign is led by Marc Yerrell and supported by the Chief Executive Joe Harrison, but everyone can be involved in providing for patients, whether it is by donating or purchasing unwanted clothes, or using pre-loved furniture and equipment before seeking to buy new.
Speaking about his plans for next year, Marc told us “We are now expanding further in our quest to become a better corporate citizen and so much is planned for next year. In January I will launch our eco and recycling committee which aims to reduce waste, recycle more and generally make the hospital as environmentally friendly as possible. Every quarter, we are set to take large groups of hospital employees to the MRF, this is the recycling facility in Milton Keynes where all reusable materials are sorted. I am also launching a permanent clothing recycling scheme in conjunction with the hospital charity which should generate a high four figure income for the trust. We will be eco champions in 2015!”
"By embracing ‘pre loved’ – everyone is loved!"