SUSTAINABILITY
T
he benefits to a healthcare organisation of encouraging staff to cycle or walk to work are becoming better known.
With local and global environmental concerns rarely out of the news and filling your car with petrol likely to get even more expensive, promoting cycling is becoming
1. Cycling to work is: a) Dangerous and too time-consuming. b) An option for those who have been banned from driving.
c) An excellent way of improving the fitness of the whole workforce, reducing absenteeism and staff turnover
d) Popular with people who can’t afford a car
2. Cycle storage at the workplace. a) We’ve invested in top quality bike stores and placed them in prominent positions.
b) We allow cycles to be attached to railings and fire escapes.
c) We’ve got a few bike racks in out of the way places.
d) We saw cycles off railings whenever we find them illegally parked.
3. Attitudes towards cycling staff. a) We tolerate cycling to work but no one in positions of authority is much in favour.
b) What staff do in their own time is up to them.
c) The trust executive lead by example and cycle, walk and take public transport whenever practical.
d) A few consultants and managers cycle.
4. Attitude towards local and global environmental concerns.
a) We worry about the environment and our impact on it
b) Man made climate change is a health issue. It is our duty to reduce carbon consumption wherever possible.
c) We’re a hospital not an environmental charity
60 nhe 0-8 points
Poor. Is Jeremy Clarkson one of your trust directors? Soon you’ll be noticed. Your staff will leave to work for competitors and you’ll soon fall foul of government guidance.
9-16 points
Well done. You’ll have noticed the increase in staff productivity. Many staff are healthier and happier and car parking issues are history.
17-24 points
You’re making lots of cash from the bike2work scheme and re-investing it into other healthy workplace ideas. Keep it up.
very mainstream with local and national policy makers.
The NHS is the nation’s biggest employer and should be in the forefront of any drive to increase cycle use.
So how does your outfit measure up? Do you work in an organisation that
d) We will abide by all national requirements but do not see how they will benefit the NHS.
5) Cyclists need changing facilities and showers.
a) They wouldn’t if they drove in. b) We’ve built a staff fitness centre with a gym and proper facilities for anyone who wants to actively commute or even to go for a lunchtime workout. Our investment has been amply rewarded.
c) The old nurses’ home has some showers. A few lockers and we’re done.
d) There are wash basins all over the hospital. Surely that’s enough?
6) The government’s salary sacrifice bike2work scheme.
a) Allows the trust to make a 17% profit but
encourages cycling? What attitudes prevail in the boardroom and the workplace shop-floor? Try our simple test to find out how bike friendly your NHS trust is!
Simply chose the option a,b,c,d, that most resembles your trust’s approach.
we’ll not be doing it because we don’t understand the maths.
b) Is deeply misguided. c) We’re attracted by the idea of making this sort of return on investment, because, let’s face it, nothing else makes a profit like that these days.
d) We started it years ago and are seeing healthy returns in finance as well as staff fitness..
So how did you fare?
1 a 0 points, b 2 points, c 4 points, d 3 points. 2 a 4 points, b 2 points, c 3 points, d 0 points. 3 a 1 points, b 0 points, c 4 points, d 2 points. 4 a 1 points, b 4 points, c 0 points, d 1 points. 5 a 0 points, b 4 points, c 3 points, d 2 points. 6 a 2 points, b 0 points, c 3 points, d 4 points
Jul/Aug 10
With thanks to Joe Mellor, Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust.
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