3 minute read
Net Zero Health Service?
THE CONSEQUENCES of climate change are increasingly in the news, as countries and organisations across the world take a look at their activities and assess how they can help reduce CO2 discharges on a path towards net zero emissions.
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This is particularly challenging for a complex system as large as the NHS, and in order to understand how and when the NHS can reach net zero an Expert Panel reviewed nearly 600 pieces of evidence and conducted extensive analysis and modelling. The stated aim is to be the world’s first net zero national health service.
Global warming is seen not only as a climate emergency, but also a health emergency. “Unabated it will disrupt care, and affect patients and the public at every stage of our lives,” said Sir Simon Stevens, who retired as Chief Executive of the National Health Service in England this year. “With poor environmental health contributing to major diseases, including cardiac problems, asthma and cancer, our efforts must be accelerated. As the largest employer in Britain, responsible for around 4% of the nation’s carbon emissions, if this country is to succeed in its overarching climate goals the NHS has to be a major part of the solution.”
The NHS Net Zero Expert Panel concluded that more intense storms and floods, more frequent heatwaves and the spread of infectious disease from climate change threatens to undermine years of health gains. “Action on climate change will affect this, and it will also bring direct improvements for public health and health equity,” the report says. “Reaching our country’s ambitions under the Paris Climate Change Agreement could see over 5,700 lives saved every year from improved air quality, 38,000 lives saved every year from a more physically active population and over 100,000 lives saved every year from healthier diets.”
Two Headline Targets
• For the emissions controlled directly (the NHS Carbon Footprint), reaching net zero by 2040, with an ambition to reach an 80% reduction by 2028 to 2032; • For the emissions the NHS can influence, reaching net zero by 2045, with an ambition to reach an 80% reduction by 2036 to 2039.
Early steps being taken to decarbonise include:
1. Developing a framework to evaluate carbon reduction associated with new models of care as part of the NHS Long Term Plan. 2. Working with suppliers to ensure that they meet or exceed the commitment on net zero before the end of the decade. 3. Requiring all NHS trusts to have a green travel plan as part of their annual planning and reporting, which should include targeted interventions that encourage staff and patients to reduce vehicle use. It is estimated that approximately 3.5% (9.5 billion miles) of all road travel in England relates to patients, visitors, staff and suppliers to the NHS. Work is progressing on road-testing the world’s first zeroemission ambulance, with a shift to zero emission vehicles by 2032 for the rest of the fleet. 4. Ensuring the digital transformation agenda aligns with the ambition to be a net zero health service 5. Supporting the construction of 40 new net zero hospitals and a new Net Zero Carbon Hospital Standard. 6. Completing a £50 million LED lighting replacement programme, to improve patient comfort and save over £3 billion by 2050.
Whilst much of the work towards Net Zero goes on in the background some aspects, like the electrification of the ambulance fleet, provide good photo opportunities. The first fully-electric ambulance is already in service in the West Midlands, but at the United Nations Global Summit held in Glasgow the NHS unveiled the world’s first zero emission ambulance capable of travelling up to 300 miles before re-charging. “The NHS is doing its bit as the first health system to commit to being net zero and now road-testing the world’s first zero emission ambulance capable of getting to patients within minutes and lasting hundreds of miles without refuelling,” said NHS Chief Sustainability Officer, Dr Nick Watts, in a Sun report. Some readers may comment that having a vehicle that can get to patients in minutes isn’t quite the same as getting to patients in minutes, but that’s a different issue.
The Sun report added that discarded plastic bottles caught by Spanish fishermen are being turned into protective scrubs across several English NHS trusts.
Since 2010, the NHS has reduced its emissions by 30%, moving well ahead of the requirements under the Climate Change Act, whilst acknowledging that there is much further to go.
Norman Griffiths for Groby Surgery Patients Group
