Clinical engineering
Engineers vital to deliver NHS Net Zero ambition
The NHS is responsible for 4% of England’s carbon emissions and NHS England has pledged to achieve Net Zero by 2045, with Scotland and Wales setting similar targets. The Institution of Mechanical Engineers has published a report highlighting the fact that engineers are essential at every level of healthcare to achieve this ambition. CSJ provides an overview of the report.
If the NHS is to succeed in its push to Net Zero, it will need to undertake transformational change which will require a major investment in engineering to develop new healthcare technologies, with engineers working closely alongside clinicians to drive innovation. This is according to a new report from the Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE). In the report Transforming Healthcare: The
role of engineering to deliver a Net Zero health service, the IMechE explores the essential role engineers will play in developing systems that eliminate healthcare’s substantial contribution to global greenhouse gas emissions. “Without a significant contribution from engineers in improving existing facilities and equipment, or engineers in academia and industry working on novel solutions to complex sustainability challenges, achieving Net Zero within healthcare goal will be impossible,” warns Rachel Stancliffe, Founder and CEO of the Centre for Sustainable Healthcare, in her foreword to the report.
Dr. Helen Meese, Chair of the Institution’s Biomedical Engineering Division and lead author of the report, also highlights the importance of engineering involvement: “The transition to Net Zero requires a multi-stakeholder approach, and nowhere is this more evident than in healthcare. Engineers have a huge role to play here, not only in designing and implementing sustainable healthcare solutions but also in fostering collaboration across disciplines and industries to ensure a healthier and more sustainable future for all,” she comments. Climate change is one of the biggest global health threats, with a third of global heat- related deaths attributed to climate change. It is therefore paradoxical that the healthcare sector globally is one of the biggest emitters. The IMechE report highlights that actions to drive down emissions in healthcare are therefore vital to not only slowing and reversing the effects of
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www.clinicalservicesjournal.com I June 2024
climate change but for improving public health outcomes and reducing pressures on health systems around the world. This will require more prominent roles for engineers within healthcare settings, with increased opportunities to work alongside clinicians to develop innovations that tackle the unique problems that healthcare faces. Technologies profiled in the report include the use of drones to deliver medical supplies, fully reusable medical textiles, and rebreathing devices to eliminate the environmental impact of anaesthetic gases. The Institution is also calling for the continued support of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) through funding initiatives such as SBRI Healthcare. It recommends further support for companies post-funding to facilitate uptake across healthcare systems. This should be
complemented with improvements to the UK’s medical devices regulatory framework, where the UK government should use current reforms to align UK rules closely with those of international partners, and provide accelerated regulatory pathways for priority areas such as Net Zero. This can help prevent an innovation drain to competitor nations, such as the US. The report also highlights the challenges
around the engineering workforce in healthcare. It states that the NHS should explore further opportunities for clinical engineers employed by the NHS to work closer with colleagues in hospitals as part of the clinical team and develop tailored solutions to Net Zero challenges. This should be supported with the provision of further roles for engineers at the decision-making level of healthcare organisations, where they can provide technical
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