Urinary catheters are one of the most widely used clinical interventions across the NHS. Over one million are inserted every year in UK hospitals alone, and millions more are managed in community settings. But behind those numbers lies a financial, clinical, and human cost that is often underappreciated; one that is placing real pressure on NHS resources, stretching community nursing teams, and affecting the outcomes and daily lives of patients.

For patients who rely on catheters daily, their lives become a continuous, lifelong relationship with medical devices. With that continuity comes something that is beginning to crop up in clinical conversations: an enormous, unrelenting stream of plastic waste.

Let me start with a number that still surprises people when I say it out loud: the basic design of the Foley catheter has barely changed since the 1930s. Think about that. In a world where surgical techniques, imaging technology, and pharmacology have been transformed beyond recognition, the most used urinary catheter has remained essentially static for nearly a century.