ESHT's re-use hub project

What's the idea?

Throwing away items that still have some life left in them creates waste. Buying new items costs money.

The circular economy encourages us to reuse, repair or repurpose items wherever possible. It’s not always easy to do this in a healthcare setting but ESHT found the perfect solution with their re-use hub project.

The Facilities team at ESHT had warehouse space on an industrial site. Over the pandemic, this space was used as a PPE store, somewhere easily accessible for large deliveries and central enough to distribute out to all the ESHT sites. Over time, it became clear that the space was also useful as a space to store other items for the Trust. The team started to bring excess furniture back to the site and sending it back out to be used elsewhere.

The logistics team managed to secure funding to employ a small team and cover the use of a van to manage the collections and deliveries of furniture and other items around the trust. Broken pieces of furniture were brought back for repair instead of being thrown away. For example, damaged patient examination couches had their torn upholstery replaced.

An inventory is kept of the items currently in the store. Anyone within the trust looking for furniture has the option of choosing something from this list and paying a minimal cost, instead of buying new.