Scotland has become the first part of the UK to stop using an anaesthetic gas in the NHS which has a global warming potential 2,500 times greater than carbon dioxide.
Desflurane is used as an anaesthetic during surgery and removing it from use in operating theatres across NHS Scotland has the potential to save emissions equivalent to powering 1,700 homes every year, the Scottish Government said.
The work has been led by NHS staff, who have moved away from using desflurane to clinically-appropriate and safe alternatives that have less impact on the environment.
It is the first action of the Scottish Government’s national green theatres programme, which is due to be formally launched in the spring to identify areas where operating theatres can become more environmentally friendly.
Scottish Health Secretary Humza Yousaf said: “I am immensely proud that we have become the first nation in the UK to stop using environmentally harmful anaesthetics in our NHS.
“Programmes like this are key to our transition to become a net-zero health service, whilst ensuring patient safety remains at the heart of every clinical decision.”
Kenneth Barker, clinical lead for the programme, said: “Theatres are high carbon and energy intensive areas that produce high volumes of waste, so reducing the environmental impact of theatres will make a positive difference towards achieving Scotland’s net-zero targets.
“NHS Scotland has assigned an ambitious target to be net-zero for anaesthetic gases by 2027, and removal of desflurane is just the first step towards this.
“We are delighted to work with clinical teams across Scotland and specialists in national procurement to make this happen before the green theatres programme fully gets under way.
“Our patients always comes first but it’s great that we are now making clinically safe patient care decisions with sustainability in mind.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here