Reducing anaesthetic greenhouse gases Environmental Sustainability Award
A group of anaesthetists from Royal North Shore Hospital has been named as finalists for the ‘Environmental Sustainability Award’ at the upcoming 2023 NSW Health Awards. Anaesthetists Associate Professor Matthew Doane, Adam Rehak, Penny Hodges, Andy Lindberg, Arpit Srivastava and Max Benness have been actively working as part of a multifaceted program to reduce the perioperative carbon footprint at the hospital by
introducing a multifaceted program. Penny and Andy are also both sustainability leads for anaesthesia and are part of NSLHD’s Australian First Net Zero Leads program. This program involved educating staff, implementing practice changes, and undertaking audits. This program first launched at Royal North Shore Hospital and then was extended across the district. A highlight for the team has been implementing the significant shift away from anaesthetic gases which are high carbon emitters–such as desflurane, which has a global warming potential that is almost 2500 times greater than carbon dioxide. Desflurane usage at RNSH has gone from 30 per cent of total gas usage to less than 2 per cent, which is well below the NSW Health key performance indicator of 4 per cent.
NSW Health Awards 2023 Australia’s first multidisciplinary concussion service Patient Safety First Award
A Royal North Shore Hospital Concussion Clinic has been named as a finalist for the ‘Patient Safety First Award’ at the upcoming 2023 NSW Health Awards.
This comes a week after the clinic was named as a finalist for the upcoming 2023 Premier’s Awards. The clinic has played a vital role in helping patients across the district and has had resources they’ve created, used and implemented by the NSW Education Department and New Zealand schools. In its first year, the weekly clinic treated 51 patients, attracting positive feedback, and improving health outcomes. The clinic has been fully booked for the past three months. They have also launched a new telephone service to provide concussion advice to people across Australia. RNSH Senior Clinical Neuropsychologist Dr Vince Oxenham said the clinic is delighted to be making a difference to the community. “To be named as a finalist for two prestigious health awards is humbling and a recognition of the dedication to patient-centred care,” he said.
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NSLHDNEWS | ISSUE 19| 13 OCTOBER 2023
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