We hope that you all enjoyed the Sustainability in Healthcare Conference at the Society of Medicine. I'm sure you saw us — wearing reusable theatre hats with yellow name badges — but you may not have had the opportunity to come and say hello!

The Scale of the Problem

Our products replace disposable theatre caps which are thrown away each day. Disposable scrub caps in theatres add up to a colossal amount of waste. Earlier this month, a trust in Birmingham implemented our reusable caps and calculated that they purchased and discarded 250,000 caps annually. Across the UK, the savings on disposables by switching to reusable theatre hats would be millions.

From Embroidered Hats to Badge Hats

We have been selling our embroidered theatre hats for a couple of years — a fantastic initiative in improving communication for teams, enhancing the patient journey and patient safety, all whilst generating a saving. We have a case study on NHS England's website listing the many benefits.

Despite embroidered theatre hats providing so many positive attributes, there are drawbacks. When staff members leave, the hats cannot be worn by anyone else. After realising these limitations, our Eco Ninjas team worked hard to provide an improved solution: Theatre Badge Hats.

The badges attach securely to the hats, and when a person leaves, the hats can be worn by another staff member — staying in circulation within the department or hospital. This also makes the product more cost-effective. All staff, visitors and students can be identified with our badge hats, enhancing safety further.

Laundering and Manufacturing

Our badge hats can be washed at home and are also perfect for hospitals that require hats to be laundered on-site, as the badges can be detached and the hats washed alongside scrubs. We are working with laundry companies like Elis who could launder hats for hospitals just as they do with other reusable healthcare garments.

Our manufacturing partners are Northumbria Healthcare Manufacturing and Innovation Hub — ISO-certified and experts in manufacturing healthcare apparel. All our products, including our badges, are manufactured here in the UK.

We have conducted thorough research by working closely with universities, expert testing centres and Innovate UK to bring our product to market. Feel free to visit our website to find out more about your journey to creating a Sustainable NHS.