Waste not, want not. What are the drivers of sustainable medicines recycling in National Health Service hospital pharmacies (UK)?

Liz Breen and Ying Xie

International Journal of Procurement Management, 2015, vol. 8, issue 1/2, 82-103

Abstract: Medicines management is only one part of National Health Service (NHS) (UK) procurement and management, but essentially a very expensive part. In December 2012, the Department of Health issued an action plan to improve the use of medicines and reduce waste. The purpose of this study is to examine medicines reverse logistics practice within NHS hospital pharmacies, and the operational strategy which drives such practices. The overarching aim is to explore through qualitative analysis the variance and commonality in strategy and practice in this standard activity. A qualitative approach was adopted in this research study, utilising a purposive study sample. The survey examined practice in 45 hospitals cases in the medicines reverse logistics system. The findings indicated there is commonality in the strategy employed in conducting medicines recycling, and all three drivers are prevalent in undertaking recycling and encouraging a more sustainable approach, i.e., economic, corporate citizenship, and legislation.

Keywords: pharmaceutical supply chains; GSCM; green SCM; supply chain management; reverse logistics; recycling; operational strategies; medicines waste analysis; medical waste processing; UK; United Kingdom; health sector; healthcare industry; National Health Service; NHS; eco-friendly; environmentally friendly; sustainability; greening; environment friendly; sustainable development; procurement management; pharmacies; drugs; drug management; waste reduction; qualitative analysis; purposive study samples; hospitals; medicines recycling; economic drivers; corporate citizenship drivers; legislation. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.inderscience.com/link.php?id=66289 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ids:ijpman:v:8:y:2015:i:1/2:p:82-103

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in International Journal of Procurement Management from Inderscience Enterprises Ltd
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sarah Parker ().