Carbon reduction and Net Zero
mandatory. Why aren’t we?” Dr. Pinto added that it is key to properly support people to work on sustainability – giving them dedicated time, resources, and training. She told delegates: “We need to develop frameworks, networks, and perhaps even national targets, to scale and spread what we know works to accelerate progress. We’ve done this with desflurane, but people ask me why we can still prescribe the most damaging metered dose inhalers when there are simple sustainable switches? “For larger scale capital projects, we need
to unlock funding, but much can be done towards clinical transformation by embedding approaches like SusQI that can save money. And finally,” she said, “we need to raise the health voice to advocate at national and local levels for measures that tackle the climate crisis and also improve health at a population level.” Session Chair, Dr. Mullan thanked the speaker, who he said had ‘really framed the crisis from a broader perspective’. He then invited questions, beginning with one of his own, by asking Dr. Pinto – given the scale of the actions that need to be taken across the NHS – how she approaches meetings on sustainability with NHS teams, and how she encourages staff either to ‘start with that bigger picture, or think about breaking it down?’ Dr. Pinto replied: “As a doctor I work within
the framework of informed consent, and am honest with people about the risks we’re facing, but it’s also so important to paint that picture of sustainability’s benefits. I think that’s been a missed opportunity – we don’t talk enough about what sustainability looks like, but instead focus on what we need people to not do, and not the opportunities this offers.” The speaker feels ‘people need something
to work towards’. One key action she would take – given a longer time period – would be to ‘acknowledge the reality of eco distress, how this affects us, and what we can do about that’. She said: “One of the most effective ways to manage this is to take action, but also to recognise that, as one individual, you can’t fix the whole thing; this is a planetary-sized problem. What you can do is tackle a piece of the jigsaw that’s in front of you, and engage others to do the same. It’s about breaking it down to work within your sphere of influence.”
Examples of successful projects Asked about other examples of relatively straightforward measures – such as eliminating a single routine appointment that had become unnecessary due to improved effectiveness and tolerability of treatment that she had earlier mentioned, Dr. Pinto said there were ‘hundreds of examples of excellent SusQI studies’. A key
40
www.clinicalservicesjournal.com I January 2025
The health co-benefits of climate action.
‘What’s needed’, in the view of the Centre for Sustainable Healthcare.
priority seen in many studies had been the importance of engaging with allied healthcare professionals, and ‘how they can make a difference’. She said: “There’s a great study on mobilising people early on CICU units, which reduces their time there, and their time being ventilated. They get home quicker, with better outcomes, and over the first year it saved over a million pounds, due to how expensive those beds are.” There was also ‘lots of work ongoing around inhalers in primary care’.
What I hear from NHS Boards is that they get lists of priorities and targets, but that sustainability is nowhere to be seen
On looking at pathways and stripping out some elements, she said: “We still use process mapping in the same way you would with a QI project, but it’s about stripping out the unnecessary steps – things that look small that are repeated many times – such as dropping one blood test or appointment; switching to more virtual delivery of medicine, and being aware of some of the issues around digital exclusion and how to address them.” Dr. Pinto explained that the Centre for Sustainable Healthcare is a charity set up 15 years ago, which has since been working on this. She encouraged attendees and others to visit its website, and link to its free-to-join networks. She explained: “The Sustainable Healthcare Networks Platform hosts our resource and case study library, so you can search for pretty much anything there and hopefully find a similar project. Let’s not ‘re-invent the wheel’, but rather look for case studies that people have already done in your area, and see if you can replicate them”.
Courtesy of the Centre for Sustainable Healthcare
Courtesy of the Centre for Sustainable Healthcare
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64
