SUSTAINABILITY ‘‘
NHS Trusts need to work with the supply chain to purchase pharmaceutical products that are low-carbon
Food, catering, and nutrition With 6% of total emissions related to the NHS’s food and catering services, it is an area that cannot be ignored. Steps are already being taken by NHS England and NHS Improvement to develop new national standards for healthcare food for patients, staff, and visitors. These standards will lead to an improved approach to procuring and producing sustainable and healthy food. This may include, for instance, ensuring that suppliers have sustainable production and transportation practices, sourcing local supplies of food, the use of seasonal produce, increased use of sustainably sourced fish, and efforts to limit food waste. This will have the added benefit of assisting patient recovery.
Medicines
Although medicines account for 25% of emissions within the NHS, it is a small number of medicines that account for a large portion of them, and there is already a significant focus on two such groups – anaesthetic gases (2% of emissions) and metered dose inhalers (3%). Anaesthetic and medical gases have also been announced as specific areas for future action as they ‘are among the single most carbon-intensive medicines
available, with desflurane among the most intensive’. As a result, NHS England and the NHS Improvement Board are aiming to ‘reduce desflurane as a percentage of all volatile gas use by volume from 20% in 2020/21, to 10% in 2021/22’. This commitment to specific, quantifiable targets is a clear indication that they recognise the threat posed by climate change, and are dedicated to delivering on the goals of the NHS Long Term Plan. NHS Trusts need to look at opportunities
to reduce the carbon emissions related to the prescribing and use of medicines and medical products – including medicines optimisation, responsible capture or disposal of waste medicines, and considering lower carbon alternative medicines. There needs to be training with clinicians related to more sustainable prescription and administration, and NHS Trusts need to work with the supply chain to purchase pharmaceutical products that are low-carbon.
While NHS England is to be
commended for its ambitious Net Zero aims, it is clear that a concerted effort in all areas of the organisation is needed to achieve those goals. It is important to look beyond the obvious, and at direct interventions within the supply chain and medicines, as well as enabling actions, including new ways of working. It could lead to an NHS that follows a different delivery model to what we are used to, but big changes will be necessary to achieve those Net Zero aims.
Further reading 1 Half of NHS Trusts off-track on climate targets, new data reveals. edie, 17June 2021.
https://tinyurl.com/32v9smm2
Jess Twemlow
Jess Twemlow, associate director for Circular Economy and Sustainability at Ricardo, is a Chartered Waste Manager with over 13 years’ experience in the environment sector. She leads on Ricardo Energy & Environment’s Circular Economy services. She has directed and managed a range of circular economy-related projects, including researching circular economy sector opportunities, providing sustainable procurement support for public sector organisations, supporting businesses with the development of circular economy business models, reviewing asset sharing and re-use opportunities, minimising packaging waste in the food and drink sector, and delivering ‘Love Food Hate Waste’ communication campaigns. She has an excellent working knowledge of resource efficiency within the healthcare sector.
April 2022 Health Estate Journal 35
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