Call for more reusable items in intensive care gives me deȷa vu

Baid and colleagues’ article on reducing the carbon footprint of critical care is interesting and worthwhile,1 but I was left with a sense of déjà vu reading some of the recommendations—using reusable alternatives such as “blood pressure cuffs, pulse oximeters, and laryngoscopes” and “creating procedure packs for central line insertion comprising reusable metalware, surgical trays, containers, drapes, and gowns.”This sounds like the average NHS hospital in the 1970s and ‘80s, when most procedure packs were reusable, there was no such thing as a single use blood pressure cuff, and the only single use laryngoscope I saw in 20 years was the one I kept in my car boot emergency bag. Gowns and drapes were routinely laundered. Infection rates in carefully run units were low, despite reuse.Although the introduction of single use items was supposed to bring improvements, the true driver was always cost, particularly in running sterile supplies units and…
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