HSV takes decisive action towards greener anaesthetics

HealthShare Victoria’s (HSV) new statewide Pharmaceutical Products collective agreement is helping to address climate change by reducing the amount of greenhouse gases used in health services.

Desflurane is an anaesthetic gas that, along with several other medicines, may be given to patients to be inhaled during general anaesthesia. It is a hydrofluorocarbon gas with a 100-year global warming potential, which is a measure of how much impact it has trapping heat in Earth’s atmosphere.

To help reduce Victorian health sector carbon emissions, HSV took the step of excluding desflurane from the tender for the Pharmaceutical Products collective agreement, which came into effect in January 2026.

“After we attended a webinar held by Safer Care Victoria and Climate Health Victoria in 2024 that presented concerns about the environmental impact of desflurane, helping to reduce greenhouse gas use in operating theatres was very much on our radar,” says Jasmine Makin, Head of Sourcing – Pharmaceutical.     

HSV’s Pharmaceutical team carefully investigated the potential clinical impacts of removing the gas from the tender and discouraging its use in health services.

“Desflurane does not perform better from a clinical perspective in comparison to alternative anaesthetic gases offered on the collective agreement, such as sevoflurane and isoflurane, so where clinically appropriate we encourage health services to opt for the gases with a lower environmental impact,” Jasmine says.

Sevoflurane and isoflurane are both more environmentally friendly than desflurane – sevoflurane’s global warming potential is 20 times lower than desflurane’s, while isoflurane’s is 5 times lower.   

“We consulted closely with Safer Care Victoria, Climate Health Victoria and the clinical specialists in our Product Reference Groups to ensure patient safety was the number one priority when changing the availability of anaesthetic gas availability on our agreement, and we received full support for excluding desflurane,” reports Jasmine.

As well as being more harmful to the environment, desflurane is much more expensive than sevoflurane, so switching products can help health services achieve significant savings.

“Many health services had already stopped purchasing desflurane for environmental and commercial reasons, but by formalising HSV’s position and excluding a very harmful greenhouse gas from our collective agreement, we are sending a strong signal that we are committed to taking decisive action towards a greener health system,” Jasmine says.  

The HSV change aligns with position statements from the Australian and New Zealand College of Anaesthetics and Council of Australian Therapeutic Advisory Groups, as well as the Australian Centre for Disease Control’s National Health and Climate Strategy 2023.