Mapping out a ‘greener’ future

HEJ editor Jonathan Baillie reports.

Published two years to the day after the NHS SDU officially unveiled its Saving Carbon, Improving Health: NHS Carbon Reduction Strategy for England, the new Route Map for Sustainable Health was put together with input from over 70 public and private sector different organisations. While the roster of those who got involved is too long to list, among those that submitted views were nursing unions, the Royal Colleges, the NHS Confederation, the World Health Organisation, the World Business Council for Sustainable Development, the Carbon Trust, the Environment Agency, the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment, the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence, NHS Strategic Health Authorities, and “Which” (The Consumers’ Association). Describing the new publication as “a route map” to help organisations both directly and indirectly involved with healthcare – and the NHS and its suppliers and other partners particularly – “to progress towards a sustainable healthcare system”, NHS SDU director David Pencheon said his team’s discussions, during its preparation, with clinicians, estates and facilities staff, nurses, IT personnel, and senior board/management staff, had clearly identified a demand for the guidance. He explained that one of the Route Map’s key goals would be to encourage sharing of best practice on sustainability between both frontline healthcare organisations and those involved on the supplier side. While there had been “a number of shining stars” in terms of environmental improvement in UK healthcare in the past 2-3 years, the scenario, both as regards achieving the carbon reduction targets the UK has signed up to, and embracing the sustainability agenda NHS-wide, was, he claimed, “still very much a night sky”.

Minister’s backing