Welsh Medical Technology Company Significantly Reduces Waste

Tredegar-based medical technology company, Frontier Medical Group, has made a major change in the production of one of its core products in order to make significant waste savings. The company is behind one of the UK’s leading pressure area care products, Repose.

The Repose line of air-inflated cushions help prevent pressure sores for at-risk patients by helping to distribute weight evenly and relieve pressure on soft tissue. The cushions are inflated using a bespoke, reusable Repose Pump which has traditionally been made using a single blue outer plastic cylinder and a white inner layer for the last 18 years. In line with Frontier Medical Group’s continuous focus on sustainability and its environmental impact, the pump will now be produced in a single colour to achieve substantial savings.

Frontier Medical Group manufactures 250,000 Repose Pumps each year. By changing from a dual colour blue and white design to a single colour the company will make a total reduction of 4.7 tonnes of material per year. The change will also result in a 25% reduction in scrap material and a 10% increased efficiency in the production process.

Matthew Bambery, Chief Operations Officer & leader of Frontier Medical Group’s Sustainability Agenda comments: “We are committed to measuring our impact on the environment and adapting our processes to make continuous improvements. Repose is one of our core products and while the pumps are manufactured to a very high standard, are fully re-usable and last a very long time, we still produce 250,000 each year as every cushion is supplied with a pump. By making both the inner and outer cylinders from the same blue plastic material, there is a hugely positive impact in terms of reducing the materials used and the waste produced but there is no effect on the functionality of the product.

“We take our commitment to sustainability very seriously at Frontier Medical Group and we are looking at all of our processes to establish where we can make waste and energy savings while still providing cutting-edge health enhancing products to a very high standard. Like many other healthcare companies and the NHS, who are the world’s first health service to commit to reaching carbon zero status, we understand that by minimising our environmental impact, we are helping to improve health and wellbeing for everyone.”

The single colour Repose Pumps are being rolled out from this month. The Repose range of products includes cushions, mattress overlays, recliner chair overlays as well as leg and foot cushions. Repose products are frequently used in hospitals and other care settings as well as by people at home who may be at increased risk of developing pressure ulcers or bed sores.

To find out more information on Frontier Medical Group visit www.frontier-group.co.uk.