Medical Market Day: 'Waste Not Want Not'

Overview

Initiative type

Framework

Status

Deliver

Published

28 August 2019

Summary

An innovative initiative reducing clinical consumables waste and cost by rotating near-expiry stock within Children's Health Queensland (CHQ) to improve sustainability.

Key dates

2024 -

Facility:

Children's Hospital Queensland

Partnerships

Metro North, Metro South and Wide Bay HHSs.

Aim

To reduce environmental and financial waste across Children's Health Queensland through proactive redistribution of near-expiry and surplus clinical stock.

Outcomes

  • Reduced expired clinical consumables across CHQ hospital and community sites by 80%
  • Increased stock utilisation through redistribution to high-traffic clinical areas
  • Financial savings of approximately $800 000 in the first year from repurposed supplies across cost centres
  • Reduced environmental footprint through avoided waste and landfill
  • Engagement of multidisciplinary staff in sustainable healthcare practices

Background

Like many healthcare providers, Children's Health Queensland (CHQ) faces challenges with the financial and environmental impact of expired clinical consumables and excess admin supplies. Traditional stock management systems often resulted in high-value clinical supplies expiring unused, particularly in low-usage departments. Stock surplus and near-expiry items were regularly discarded, contributing to unnecessary costs and environmental waste.

The central issue was the inefficient rotation of consumables across various cost centres and wards, with limited visibility over expiring items and no formal process to redirect surplus stock. Recognising an opportunity for system-wide sustainability improvement, the Medical Market Day initiative was established to reimagine stock lifecycle management.

Methods

The Medical Market Day is held monthly in the Level 7 Auditorium at Queensland Children's Hospital. The initiative invites all staff from all CHQ departments to surrender surplus or near-expiry consumables that are still safe, compliant, and usable. These are then made available to high-turnover wards likely to use them before expiration. Key implementation steps included:

  • Socialisation of the Medical Market Day across staff newsletters, CHQ Green Team and internal media campaign to foster culture change and mobilise staff to engage.
  • Developing local work instructions encouraging routine PAR level reviews and early identification of at-risk stock
  • Establishing Medical Market Day processes, including item registration, compliance checks, and redistribution.
  • Engaging key stakeholders including Material Supply Coordinators, Central Resource Services, and Sustainability Consultants to ensure clinical safety and stock traceability.
  • Facilitating transport and logistics with cages, sign-in sheets, and compliance documentation.
  • Establishing a CHQ Disposal Procedure - Proc  64419 to implement a sustainable process to triage the management for HHS supplies and materials, to ensure we exhaust internal capacity to use items, offer for use to other HHSs, offer the items as a listing for sale on Health Technology Sales website and if not successful, CHQ will donate our supplies or materials to International Aid through RARE.

Improvement methodology aligns with our financial and environmental sustainability principles - eliminating waste and optimising resource management and efficiencies.

Discussion

  • Strong support from supply chain, sustainability, and clinical leadership teams.
  • Clear work instructions empowering frontline staff.
  • Central coordination with built-in compliance and traceability checks.
  • Financial and Environmental Impact to reduce expired clinical waste by 80%.
  • Expansion to include more categories such as IT and admin equipment.

Lessons Learned:  

  • Early engagement and education across staff is critical to mobilise behavioural change.
  • Categorisation of supplies improved uptake and organisation.
  • Transparent communication about the collective organisational benefit helped overcome concerns about individual cost centre loss.

Strengths:

  • Sustainable, replicable, and low-cost.
  • Promotes a culture of environmental and financial responsibility.
  • Builds interdepartmental collaboration and discussions around supply chain management and ordering.
  • Fosters connection across staff disciplines and staff engagement - staff now swap their shifts not to miss our Medical Market Day.

Weaknesses:

  • Requires consistent oversight to maintain compliance.
  • Limited by consumable storage and transportation logistics.

Opportunities:

  • Scalability to other HHS facilities across Queensland.
  • Scalability to connect supplies and materials across HHSs to optimise the Qld Health supply chain.

Next Steps:

  • Formal evaluation of cost savings and waste reduction using S4 Hana.
  • Pilot programs in other Queensland Health sites using CHQ model.
  • Digital tracking tools to streamline item registration and data capture.

Key contact

Renae McBrien

Sustainability Lead - Senior Radiographer

Children's Health Queensland

Email:  renae.mcbrien@health.qld.gov.au

Last updated: June 2025

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