Working towards a safer and more sustainable NHS by innovating cost-effective solutions.
Mission statement
Eco Ninjas is leading the change from disposable theatre caps to reusable “name and role” fabric hats. Named theatre hats are already boosting staff morale and reducing patients’ anxiety as they enable everyone to identify the people around them, quickly and easily.
Our mission is to improve communication among healthcare professionals and patients by sharing best practice and promoting the many benefits of our eco-friendly, medical hats.
Meet the team
Danielle Checketts, Managing Director
As a former medical professional, I am passionate about patient safety and communication. I would like to help to create a safer and greener NHS. After 7 years working in the NHS followed by 16 years in medical sales (working with and training the NHS), I saw first-hand how having access to the right medical advances could change patients’ lives.
I have been a patient twice now (I have had 2 babies in theatres) so I can understand from a patient perspective how human connections and human factors can make such a huge difference along with heightened anxiety levels when clinical staff are not identifiable.
From several perspectives I have experienced first-hand mistaken identity:
1) Whilst training medical staff in theatre.
2) As a student nurse during an 8-week placement in theatres.
3) As a patient on 2 separate occasions- one which was an emergency and one which was planned.
I therefore feel that I am a great advocate for promoting the many benefits in clearly identifiable staff members throughout the operating theatre department and I will try to ensure that all theatre staff have clearly named hats/scrub caps throughout the UK.
Research:
To provide evidence and current up to date research, we have been working closely with Birmingham University, who have produced a theatre fabric hat review, a microbiology study and more recently, a degradation test on our badges for the new product range.
We have been exploring the results, benefits, and challenges of implementing fabric hats into various hospitals. The testing conducted on our badges was performed by TWI at Cambridge who are one of the world’s foremost independent research and technology organisations. All test results and studies are available on our resource hub.
Working closely with our customers, we have had a case study done on the many benefits of implementing our embroidered theatre caps.
You can download this via the link:
Neil Draper
Director Of Finance & eCommerce
With over 15 year's experience in running various businesses, my strengths are within finance, processes, and systems. I gained qualifications in finance, media, website design and building bespoke back- office systems to cope with the demands of the ever-changing online industry, I am always looking for ways to improve efficiencies through technology.
When Danielle came up with the idea of making a change within the NHS to boost patient safety and communication through the "named theatre hats" campaign, I instantly knew that I wanted to be part of this hugely worthwhile initiative.
I moved on to learn sales and marketing, health and safety and eventually finance and started a successful logistics company plus various online shopping stores. I enjoy spending my (limited) free time on the golf course or working out in the gym.
I am the social media manager for Eco Ninjas.
With over 12 years of experience creating, implementing, and optimising social media strategies, I am relentlessly focused on telling a company’s story and mission through the use of social media to help boost awareness and visibility.
I am passionate about engaging with audiences about our innovative products, learning about patient stories and using our channels as a platform to have important conversations about patient care and the environment.
I am excited to bring this energy and commitment to an environmentally focused & ethical business like Eco Ninjas.
Jennifer Kennedy
Social Media Manager
I’ve spent 20 years in Telecoms and IT business, much of that time in Senior Management.
As a keen advocate of tech in both my work and my personal life, I am uniquely placed to see the overall picture and I particularly relish orchestrating the various moving parts to provide the complete solution.
Project Management, mergers and acquisitions plus ‘people’ management are key strings to my bow.
I get excited about technical systems, system integration and automation. Outside work, I enjoy travel and dealing in rare and historic vinyl records, which has given me the chance to flex my entrepreneurial muscles.
Ben Checketts
IT and operations