Reducing carbon footprints with solar-powered paediatric

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Extract from the article: Smile Train, the world's largest cleft charity, and Scottish charity Kids Operating Room are working to improve human health and tackle the proliferation of greenhouse gases. As part of the commemoration of Earth Day, the two organisations have set t

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Smile Train, the world's largest cleft charity, and Scottish charity Kids Operating Room are working to improve human health and tackle the proliferation of greenhouse gases. As part of the commemoration of Earth Day, the two organisations have set themselves the target of tackling the twin challenges of greenhouse gas emissions from operating theatres while prioritising paediatric surgery through the installation of solar powered surgical systems.

Power cuts in African hospitals can have a serious impact on patient care, with many hospitals suffering hundreds of hours of power cuts every month. In some cases, these power cuts last several days.Operating theatres are also a major source of greenhouse gas emissions for hospitals when operating at full capacity. Ms Nkeiruka Obi, Smile Train's Vice President and Regional Director for Africa, pointed out that this solution is beneficial for access to essential surgical care and for reducing the carbon footprint.

« The daily consumption of medical equipment is 1.5 kw/h, and the new system can last up to 6 hours, saving 1.5 tonnes of CO2 per year. This system improves our surgical infrastructure and access to critical care. The back-up systems allow our surgical teams to carry out their treatments without fear. It also reduces the carbon footprint of the operating theatre, which draws its power from the grid and relies on diesel generators. Greening our paediatric operating theatres is a win-win situation: while saving lives, we are also protecting our planet», said Ms Obi.

Kids Operating Room conducted a pilot study in 2023 in four hospitals in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Tanzania, Zimbabwe and Nigeria, which had some of the worst power cuts.

Of the four sites, the Democratic Republic of Congo had the longest average outage time (176.7 minutes) and lost the most time to power cuts during the trial.Nigeria came second, with more frequent outages than any of the other hospitals, although the average duration of power cuts was shorter (96.01 minutes).Zimbabwe and Tanzania fared better, but still lost a lot of time to power cuts, with Zimbabwe losing more than two days in total during the trial.The pilot study, which lasted 31 days, reduced CO2 emissions by 1,104.84 kg. It is predicted that 13 tonnes of CO2 will be reduced in just one year as a result of the pilot study. This pilot project demonstrates the reduction in the carbon footprint and the savings made on the hospital's operating costs.

Following the success of the pilot project, the two charities will roll out the solar surgery facilities across 40 paediatric operating theatres by 2025.  Smile Train and KidsOR are working together in countries around the world to increase capacity for safe paediatric surgery, including life-saving cleft lip and palate surgery.

A major player in supporting children with clefts, Smile Train provides local healthcare professionals with the training, funding and resources to offer free comprehensive cleft surgery and care to children around the world.Its partner, Kids Operating Room, is a global health NGO that works directly with local surgeons and their teams across Africa and South America.It also funds the training of surgeons and anaesthetists in patient care.

Jean ELI