Richmond Pharmacology have developed a resourceful way to use study equipment to help reduce waste produced on site and support clinical facilities in under developed nations. The initiative is the idea of Jennifer Cripps, and her colleagues Kadeem Marshall and Eleanor Wright, who are all Clinical Trials Assistants at Richmond Pharmacology.  

As part of Richmond Pharmacology’s ongoing study activity, we receive excess needles and vacutainers as part of wider supplies onsite to aid taking blood. Richmond Pharmacology already have their own certified supplies of blood collection consumables, meaning needles which are unused have to be discarded. Jennifer and her team thought there would be a better use of the equipment and began investigating a better destination for the excess supplies.

Through her research, a relationship with the Nilda Patricia Hospital in Nicaragua has been established and this month Richmond Pharmacology arranged for over 350 needles and vacutainers to be sent to the hospital which would have otherwise been unused and discarded.

The scheme is increasingly important as Nilda Patricia Hospital suffer from lack of resources, and therefore have come to rely on donations from outside the country in order to upgrade their own resources.

The needles come packaged and are sterile, which the hospital are in high demand of and are particularly useful as they can be used in the wider community, where mobile clinics go out to rural areas to treat patients who cannot easily get to the hospital.

The hospital also has a twinning agreement with George Eliot hospital in Nuneaton. Their arrangement has also helped to provide basic things such as rubber gloves and other basic equipment.

The plan is to maintain this relationship and supply the hospital with supplies that would otherwise go to waste every 3 months and forms part of Richmond Pharmacology’s wider plan to be more resourceful with our intake of study supplies and support clinical facilities worldwide.

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