‘Gloves Off’ for public, employee and planet health

NHS Grampian is launching a drive to improve patient care and reduce unnecessary waste by reminding staff to carefully consider whether gloves are required when delivering care.

NHS Grampian Board Chair Alison Evison rolled up her sleeves during a Climate Week visit to Ward 215 at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary to show her support for the ‘Gloves Off’ campaign.

She explained: “We know the inappropriate use of disposable gloves is detrimental to both patient care and the environment. This is not about saving money. Gloves are no substitute for handwashing and sometimes when we wear gloves we forget to wash in between, or touch lots of different surfaces with them. This increases the risk of spreading germs.

“The message is simple: ‘Gloves Off’ unless you’re dealing with blood, bodily fluids or hazardous chemicals. We need the public to be supportive of staff too.”

Colleagues across NHS Grampian used more than 34 million disposable gloves during the last financial year. These cost more than £1.3m to purchase, not to mention a further estimated £86,173 in disposal costs. The total carbon footprint of the gloves is estimated to be the equivalent of over 889,190 kg CO2. This could provide enough electricity to power 2,500 homes for a month, based on UK average electricity consumption.

Infection Prevention and Control Manager, Grace Johnston and her team have been working alongside waste management, quality improvement, health and safety, domestic and procurement colleagues for more than a year to review and reduce glove use across the organisation. So far, they have achieved a 6.7% reduction in the number of gloves used and their work is recognised as an example of best practice for others to follow across Scotland.

The campaign has been aimed at staff so far and has had the added bonus of saving the organisation almost £95,000. The team is now keen to raise awareness among members of the public so they can reduce the risk of spreading germs and keep numbers heading in the right direction.

Grace said: “As healthcare professionals we’re very risk aware, we’re often weighing things up as we go and continually putting safety first The use of gloves increased during the pandemic and we now need to go back to a much more measured approach of carefully deciding, when delivering care or carrying out tasks, whether we really need to use gloves. Members of the public can support this effort too, by understanding staff don’t always need to wear gloves to care for them.

“Excessive wearing of gloves can result in skin damage. Every time gloves are worn moisture and warmth develop on the skin of the hands. This creates an ideal environment for bacteria to grow, and no one wants to grow bacteria on their hands! This bacteria can be transferred to others if hands are not washed or gelled immediately after use. There are so many benefits to reducing glove waste – impacting positively on the environment too, which in turn supports better public health – and we hope everyone can get behind us.”

Tackling climate change presents an opportunity to improve the health and wellbeing of our communities, by reducing health harms and health inequalities. Find out more about NHS Grampian’s Climate Emergency and Sustainability Strategy: www.nhsgrampian.org/siteassets/about-us/sustainability/nhsg-ce-sustainability-strategy.pdf