Warwick Med have been selling personalised embroidered theatre hats for a year and a half, helping the NHS to be more sustainable. Feedback from hospitals has revealed that improvements in teamwork have been fantastic! Just one of the many positives is the huge reduction in waste — by 1 tonne per year per hospital.

What We've Learned

We are continuing to implement our embroidered range of personalised headwear, however we have learned a great deal about the pros and cons of individual embroidered hats. We are also mindful that visitors, birthing partners, company representatives and students are still required to wear disposable, non-labelled hats.

As a visitor in theatre myself, I have been mistaken as a member of the clinical team on many occasions. One example: a prospective dad was asked several times to perform clinical duties when present at the birth of his twins — because all theatre staff including the dad were dressed in scrubs and masks, creating understandable confusion.

There are other challenges too. When a member of staff leaves, the embroidered hat personalised to them cannot be reused. Home washing is also an issue for many hospitals — many infection control departments refuse to allow theatre staff to take their embroidered hats home, so they have no option but to wear disposables.

Coming Soon

Warwick Med have been working very hard to develop and manufacture a robust product that meets the needs of different hospitals and provides solutions to all of the challenges above — one we feel is even more sustainable than embroidered theatre hats.

Our new product range will be able to identify all visitors as well as members of the clinical team with named reusable theatre caps, be centrally washed by the hospital laundry or their third-party laundry service, and continue to be used even if someone leaves their job role.

We are working with Innovate UK and the Manufacturing Technology Centre in Coventry to test our products and help create the best quality theatre hats which the NHS can implement across the country.

Diversity, Equality and Inclusion

We are also working hard to make sure our range is fully inclusive — promoting the representation and participation of different groups of individuals, including people of different races, ethnicities, religions and cultures. Every clinician deserves to wear headwear that works for them.

If you would like to be the first to hear when our products are ready to purchase, please get in touch and we can add you to the waiting list.