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Nitrous oxide waste mitigation webinars

NHS England - in collaboration with subject matter experts, NHS Elect, and UCL Partners - are running a series of webinars from January to March 2025 to support trusts to design and implement nitrous oxide waste mitigation activities, based on the Nitrous oxide toolkit (planned to launch early 2025).

  • The webinars are open to all NHS staff.
  • There are 10 webinars, including both pre-recorded and live sessions. See below for agendas and dates.
  • 2 drop-in sessions are also available for general questions or challenges.

Access the toolkit

Sign up for the webinars

Background

Nitrous oxide, and nitrous oxide and oxygen mixture (often called ‘gas and air’), are used in different clinical settings across the NHS.

Recent work has shown that our medical gas use isn’t as efficient as it could be. The Nitrous Oxide Project, led by Alifia Chakera (Head of Pharmaceutical Sustainability, Scottish Government), discovered that NHS Trusts were buying more nitrous oxide than needed for patient care, mainly due to significant supply system wastage.

Already, several NHS Trusts have successfully optimised their nitrous oxide use without reducing patient use, disrupting care, or hindering clinical access.

Webinar agendas and dates

Nitrous oxide in the NHS (part 1)

Prerecorded, available from 27 January 2025

Agenda:

  • Overview of nitrous oxide, how it is used, its properties, the sources of it

Suggested attendees:

  • All roles, but only those who are at the start of their nitrous oxide work
Nitrous oxide in the NHS (part 2)

Prerecorded, available from 27 January 2025

Agenda:

  • Summary of key actions and steps to reduce waste by usage and clinical area 
  • Nitrous oxide emissions monitoring - how to understand your current state

Suggested attendees:

  • All roles
Introduction to the nitrous oxide toolkit

Prerecorded, availability to be confirmed

Agenda:

  • Navigating the toolkit
  • Toolkit aims and how it works
  • Available supporting resources 

Suggested attendees:

  • All roles
Getting started on reducing nitrous oxide waste

Thursday 30 January 2025, 2pm to 3:30pm

Agenda:

  • Establishing governance and project team
  • Understanding trusts existing work
  • Case studies
  • Discussion of key challenges

Suggested attendees:

  • Project leads
  • Clinical leads
Developing a waste mitigation action plan

Tuesday 4 February 2025, 1pm to 2:30pm

Agenda:

  • Understanding current waste
  • Matching supply to clinical use 
  • Key actions and steps to reduce waste (by usage and clinical area) 
  • Case studies 
  • Discussion of key challenges 

Suggested attendees:

  • Project leads
  • Clinical leads
Implementing waste mitigation activities (outside of maternity)

Thursday 13 February 2025, 10am to 11:30am

Agenda:

  • Possible approaches to portable cylinder installation 
  • Other tasks required for installation (such as alarm installations) 
  • Case studies 
  • Discussion of key challenges 

Suggested attendees:

  • Project leads  
  • Clinical leads  
  • Technicians  
Implementing waste mitigation activities (inside maternity)

Tuesday 18 February 2025, 1pm to 2:30pm

Agenda:

  • Unique requirements of maternity 
  • Case studies 
  • Blue sky discussion of potential solutions available 
  • Call to action (such as for pilots, data collection, building case for change) 

Suggested attendees:

  • Project leads  
  • Clinical leads (maternity) 
Navigating engineering requirements

Thursday 27 February 2025, 2pm to 3:30pm

Agenda:

  • Decommissioning medical gas pipelines
  • Implementation phase
  • Case studies
  • Discussion of key challenges

Suggested attendees:

  • Project leads  
  • Estates and engineers 
Building a business case and measuring improvement

Tuesday 4 March 2025, 10am to 11:30am

Agenda:

  • Measuring waste improvement 
  • Building a business case (key requirements) 
  • Case studies 
  • Discussion of key challenges 

Suggested attendees:

  • Project leads
  • Clinical leads
Continuing to optimise systems

Thursday 13 March 2025, 10am to 11:30am

Agenda:

  • Identifying ongoing waste 
  • Maintaining system efficiency strategy   
  • Ongoing monitoring and detecting of waste 
  • Case studies 
  • Discussion of key challenges 

Suggested attendees:

  • Project leads  
  • Clinical leads  
  • Medical gas procurement 
  • Estates / engineers 
Drop-in session 1

Thursday 20 February 2025, 1pm to 2pm

Agenda:

  • General session for questions and challenges

Suggested attendees:

  • All roles
Drop-in session 2

Thursday 20 March 2025, 1pm to 2pm

Agenda:

  • General session for questions and challenges

Suggested attendees:

  • All roles

Sign up for the webinars

Sign up for access to the pre-recorded webinars and to book onto the live webinars.

Note: These webinars are only available to NHS staff

Sign up for the webinars
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