Forward-thinking company recognised for reducing NHS costs and environmental impact
jueves, 18 marzo 2010
Reducing infection rates, costs and carbon footprint – Inditherm plc has been honoured with a national award recognising their contribution to dramatically cutting NHS costs, improving patient care, reducing energy use and clinical waste.
Announced at the Community Partnerships Awards 2010, Inditherm won the ‘Suppliers Delivering Sustainability’ category. Judged by senior Department of Health and NHS managers, the award acknowledges their contribution to making the highest standards of care financially viable and environmentally more sustainable.
Already used in many NHS hospitals, Inditherm’s innovative patient warming systems are helping to address the problem of hypothermia during surgery. Effective warming during anaesthesia is widely recognised in helping to reduce blood loss, infection rates, recovery times and even mortality.
As the NHS works to comply with NICE guidelines on preventing perioperative hypothermia, expenditure on traditional disposable warming products in the NHS has nearly doubled in the last year. Figures published by NICE suggest that patient warming costs could be reduced by well over £10 million annually if use of the Inditherm system was extended to all UK hospitals.
The award also acknowledged the environmental advantages of Inditherm’s patented carbon polymer technology over traditional forced air warming, which could save the NHS more than 3,000 MWh of energy and reduce clinical waste by over 200 tonnes each year.
Speaking after the event, Inditherm plc Chief Executive, Nick Bettles, said: “The award clearly recognises the contribution our patient warming systems can offer to hospitals. This shows that Inditherm technology offers the perfect solution to reduce costs whilst helping meet NICE guidelines and saving the environment; this must be attractive to the NHS is the current economic climate.”
More information about Inditherm plc
Inditherm plc specialises in heating and warming applications, using the company’s patented flexible carbon polymer technology. The business, which is based in Rotherham, UK, was founded in 1998 and floated on AIM in 2001, and is currently the only company with a British designed and manufactured product for intra-operative patient warming.
Applications range from warming premature babies to heating three of Chelsea FC’s training pitches. One of the company’s biggest successes has been industrial process heating, where the technology is used for heating of chocolate, syrups and sugars in the confectionery industry and chemicals such as surfactants in the production of soaps.
Inditherm’s Medical business has been its fastest growing sector and in 2009 won the Medilink UK national award for export achievement. The medical arm started with the warming of patients during surgery and has expanded to include the pre- and post-op periods and into the Accident & Emergency departments.
The company’s CosyTherm neonatal warming system is used in Special Care Baby Units, the delivery suite and other neonatal care areas. The product has dominated the UK market since its launch around four years ago.
The latest medical product released, SpeedHeatVE is used to make the administration of chemotherapy easier and less painful for the patient. Customers in the UK have indicated that they have found no other equivalent or effective medical device for this purpose available in the market.
The award follows publication of the NHS’s NICE guidelines in 2008 which relate to the prevention of hypothermia in patients undergoing surgery. The recommendations indicated the need for a huge increase in patients receiving active warming in the UK. Recent figures obtained from the NHS suggest that an increase of around 80% in the use of traditional disposable warming products has been seen this financial year over last.
It is estimated that the Inditherm technology could allow all patients to be warmed at the same time as reducing annual consumable costs in the NHS by over £10 million if universally adopted. The environmental savings highlighted in this latest award and the clinical benefits will deliver considerable further financial savings.
More company and product details can be found at www.inditherm.com