Sustainable healthcare
Delivering a shift to sustainable healthcare
In 2019, the healthcare industry accounted for an estimated 5.2% of greenhouse gas emissions globally. As the NHS embarks on its journey to become the first health system in the world to reach Net Zero, ABHI’s sustainability executive, Addie MacGregor, shares her thoughts on why it will take more than recycling tools to shift to sustainable healthcare – and the critical role that health technology can play on the sustainability front.
Globally, healthcare is said to account for 4-5% of carbon emissions. Today, demand for healthcare services is rising globally, with an ageing population and increasing chronic disease burden. As healthcare demand rises, so does the carbon footprint of the healthcare sector, meaning it has an increasingly vital role to play in climate change mitigation efforts worldwide. In the UK, the NHS, which is the largest
publicly funded health system in the world, also has the ambition to become the first health system to reach Net Zero. Every year, it delivers 17 million inpatient admissions from more than 200 hospital Trusts, more than 270 million primary care appointments from nearly 7,000 general practices, and prescribes more than 1.1 billion items.1
Given its status as the world’s largest single-
payer healthcare system – and the largest employer in Europe – the NHS has a unique
opportunity to utilise its size and influence to lead the way in reducing its own emissions, and carving the path forward for others to follow. According to a report by the Sustainable
Development Unit (SDU) – which has published regular updates of the NHS’s carbon footprint since 2008 – the NHS in England is responsible for approximately 4-5% of the country’s greenhouse gas emissions.2
where does HealthTech fit in to help tackle this challenge?
In 2019, the carbon
footprint of the NHS in England totalled 25 megatonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (that’s the equivalent of filling up over 11,000 Olympic- sized swimming pools!). Importantly, 62% of this came from the NHS supply chain, while 10% of emissions are attributed to travel to and from NHS sites by patients, visitors, and staff commute.
Of course, finding a pathway towards
achieving Net Zero emissions for a system as large and complex as the NHS is no easy feat. So,
HealthTech can reduce environmental impact The COVID-19 pandemic has undoubtedly accelerated the adoption and evolution of health technology in several ways. As a critical part of the NHS supply chain, HealthTech (medical devices, diagnostic and digital technologies) has a key role to play in its sustainability efforts. Addie, who joined the Association for British
HealthTech Industries (ABHI) as the organisation’s first Sustainability Executive a year ago – around the same time the NHS initiated the first milestone of its Net Zero Supplier Roadmap – says it will take a concerted effort and more than recycling tools to enable the shift to sustainable healthcare. Over the past year, her role has been to help educate and represent members across the health technology landscape on this important and developing area. Addie says: “Although reducing waste and
recycling used devices are critical to reducing our environmental impact, using these interventions alone will not get us to the NHS Net Zero targets of 2045. “Assessing emissions holistically, the NHS has outlined that one of its greatest areas of opportunity, and challenge, in emissions reductions, lies in the supply chain. As a key part of the NHS’s supply chain, the UK’s HealthTech industry will be a significant player in the decarbonisation challenge. “HealthTech has a pivotal role to play in
changing the way that healthcare is delivered – and the sector has invested heavily in developing revolutionary devices and models of care. “We need to ensure the adoption of the many innovations already available in the sector which
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www.clinicalservicesjournal.com I July 2023
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