Huge changes are needed in the delivery of healthcare if the NHS is to meet its target on reducing carbon emissions, according to speakers at the GE and London First Conference 'Mind The Gap'.
Leading healthcare experts join the debate at GE sustainable cities conference
Huge changes are needed in the delivery of healthcare if the NHS is to meet its target on reducing carbon emissions, according to Rachel Stancliffe, Director of the Campaign for Greener Healthcare.
Speaking at a session on Saving Lives or Saving Carbon at a GE and London First Conference 'Mind The Gap', on how London can meet its carbon emission targets, Ms Stancliffe said: "The scale of the problem is huge. We know that doing more of the same is not enough. The changes we need to make are not of scale but of transformation."
The NHS's carbon footprint was 21million tonnes per year, she told the conference. The NHS's strategy, Saving Carbon, Improving Health, published in January 2009, pledged to reduce carbon emissions by 80 per cent by 2050.
What was good for the environment was good for health and it was time to overhaul patterns of healthcare delivery, said Ms Stancliffe. A truly sustainable health service would place greater emphasis on prevention, patient-centred care and a 'lean' approach to buildings and transport, she told the conference.
"We need to use low carbon interventions as often as possible," Ms Stancliffe said. Urgent action was needed to reduce the effects of climate change on the NHS. "We have a window of opportunity which is probably about five years so let's work together," she urged.
Dr Robin Stott, Chair of the Climate and Health Council, and former consultant physician, told the audience he had cycled to the conference, and urged everyone in the NHS to become an example of the change they wanted to see. "Live simply that others may simply live," he said, quoting Mahatma Gandhi's dictum.
"Any reduction in carbon is a public health advance," Dr Stott told the conference. In future less healthcare would be delivered in hospitals and more near the patient's home and this meant fewer journeys and a more sustainable service, he said.
Dr Stott also called for the public to be made more aware of the health benefits of reducing their reliance on cars. Many car journeys in the UK were under two miles. "If you asked people to walk those two miles you would get a carbon saving, increased life expectancy, improvement in air quality and fiscal savings," he said. 'There's enormous potential, do it now," he added.
Dr Stott also called for greater use of innovative technology which would enable older people to remain in their own homes for longer.
Alan Franey, Chief Executive of BarnDoc, a company providing out-of-hours healthcare in North London, stressed the environmental benefits to be gained from reorganising traditional patterns of service delivery.
Last year BarnDoc received 110,000 patient telephone calls and 50,000 were dealt with on the telephone, with patients being advised on self-care. "This reduces the need for appointments, eliminates travel and unnecessary visits to hospital. So a better patient experience leads to a reduction in carbon emissions," he said.
Luke Blair, Director, London Communications Agency where he leads on health, said it was important that energy was recognised as a precious resource, and he welcomed moves to provide more care near patients' homes.
"We should all be concerned about making energy go very much further," he said. Hospitals' energy use was two and half times the intensity of the average commercial building and the NHS still had a great deal of unused space, he told the conference. But he acknowledged the difficulties of producing change at a time of public sector cuts. "Thousands of people in the NHS in London are going to be losing their jobs. It will be difficult to persuade people that energy efficiency is more important than redundancy," he said.
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Mark Maguire
GE
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Sara Cruz
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