The Common Challenge
suHCO will tackle the shared challenge of making the healthcare sector more sustainable by procuring a horizontal digital planning and execution-driven system. The suHCO solution will enable Health Care Organisations (HCOs) to act sustainably by addressing four key needs:
- Information: identify and access existing sustainable solutions
- Operation: design and implement context-aware strategies that maintain healthcare safety and quality
- Organisation: coordinate and manage stakeholder interactions
- People: foster mindset change and build staff skills
Artificial intelligence in suHCO will help assess circular solutions for compliance with relevant regulations and procedures. Its adoption will reduce material use, waste, and pollution, and contribute to advancing the One Health approach globally.
The project
suHCO is a competitive pre-commercial procurement (PCP) and the first of its kind. Health and care organisations (HCOs) of all sizes will be empowered to start their sustainability transition at low cost and risk, in contrast to the current situation where only a few large HCOs can afford the staff or consultancy to do so. The solution removes friction in knowledge sharing, networking within and between HCOs, training and tracking the impact of circularity. By providing evidence of initially simple actions, it provides evidence to overcome the prevailing prejudices against and lack of awareness of the benefits of circular and sustainable strategies.
The Buyers Group includes leading and highly visible HCOs: Consorci de Salut i d’Atencio Social de Catalunya (CSC – Catalonia, Spain), Hywel Dda University Health Board (HDUHB – Wales, UK) and Ente Educazione e Assistenza (EnEA – Treviso, Italy) supported by a leading research team on sustainability in healthcare (BEVAN Commission of Swansea University) and widely connected consultants on logistics (BME – Bundesverband Materialwirtschaft, Einkauf und Logistik) and digital health (empirica).
More details about the suHCO consortium.