Campaign starts for next year’s event

Afew days ago, on 3 October, the first official NHS Sustainability Day Roadshow took place at the East Riding Medical Education Centre at Hull Royal Hospital. The brainchild of Fiona Daly, environmental manager at Barts NHS Health Trust, and the Trust’s director of Estates and Facilities, Trevor Payne, the Roadshows have been organised to promote NHS Sustainability Day 2014, which takes place on 27 March next year, Over the past two years, the Day has established itself as a key date in the diaries of all sustainability managers within the NHS. This year over 100 Trusts got involved in a range of activities, events, and promotional work, to highlight the important role that sustainability can play in health and the future of the NHS. NHS Sustainability Day 2013 reached out to the NHS and engaged Trusts and healthcare organisations across the world to take action on climate change. The day itself aims to make links and break down barriers across professions, organisations and countries, in order to support active change to happen across the whole healthcare landscape. Supported by the Prime Minister and a number of leading experts in the field of health and the environment, NHS Trusts of all sizes shared knowledge and inspired others with their actions through the dedicated online portal.

An increasing focus

Sustainability within the NHS is an area which has become an increasing focus over the past five years, with the establishment of the NHS Sustainable Development Unit (www.sdu.nhs.uk), and the publication of its Carbon Reduction Strategy, ‘Saving Carbon, Improving Health’, in 2009. The Strategy demonstrates the need for reductions in carbon across a range of healthcare services, with the latest consultation strategy, due for publication on 29 January 2014, focused towards adaptation and changing models of care. The Stern and Marmot Reviews both demonstrated the close correlation between health and sustainability, and inequalities in health driven from unsustainable lifestyles. For 2014 Barts Health is partnering with 4 All of Us, a social enterprise organisation, which will be organising and managing the campaign on the organisation’s behalf. 4 All of Us currently works across the public sector on environmental and health campaigns which highlight best practice, while focusing on community engagement. It is this engagement which brought 4 All of Us to the attention of Barts Health.