Sam Coombes

Lead Medicines Information Technician and Sustainability lead

East Kent Hospitals University Foundation Trust

Our team saves £1m per year on medicines in East Kent by keeping a close eye on value

The medicines value team at East Kent Hospitals University NHS Foundation Trust is keeping sustainability in mind while continuing to meet annual savings targets of £1m on the trust’s medicines bill.…

How we recycled over 20,000 inhalers so far in East Kent

NHS Kent and Medway Integrated Care Board explains how an inhaler recycling scheme was set up as a collaborative working project with biopharmaceutical company Chiesi.…

Tackling pharmacy’s reliance on single-use plastic

A project that began in 2019 has resulted in annual savings of 300,000 pieces of single-use plastic across two large acute NHS trusts.…

How we faced our shocking plastic culture and eradicated our most commonly used single-use items in pharmacy

Pharmacy technician Sam Coombes challenged his trust’s toxic relationship with disposable plastic when he discovered pharmacy had used more than 500,000 plastic items in just three years.…