Greener NHS Campaign To Tackle Climate ‘Health Emergency’

NHS Chief Sir Simon Stevens has announced the NHS and its staff will step up action to tackle the climate “health emergency” this year, helping prevent illness, reducing pressure on A&Es, and saving tens of thousands of lives. The initiative follows the launch of the Climate Assembly UK this week, which is discussing how the country can best get to 'net zero'.

The causes of air pollution and climate change are often the same, so the ‘For a greener NHS’ campaign will help address both. The health and care system in England is responsible for an estimated 4-5% of the country's carbon footprint.

Air pollution is linked to killer conditions like heart disease, stroke and lung cancer, contributing to around 36,000 deaths annually.

A recent study by Kings College London looking at nine English cities demonstrated that on high pollution days there are 673 additional out-of-hospital cardiac arrests and hospital admissions for stroke and asthma, with spikes in ambulance 999 call outs.

Last month a group of 175 doctors warned that air pollution is directly adding to current pressures in accident and emergency departments.

The changing climate is leading to more frequent heatwaves and extreme weather events such as flooding, including the potential spread of infectious diseases to the UK. Almost 900 people were killed by last summer’s heatwaves while nearly 18 million patients go to a GP practice in an area that exceeds the World Health Organisation’s air pollution limit.

Scientists believe perhaps a third of new asthma cases might be avoided by cutting emissions while Lyme Disease and encephalitis are among conditions expected to become more common as temperatures rise.

Health chief Sir Simon Stevens has today announced three steps the NHS will take during 2020 to tackle this problem.

First, NHS England is establishing an expert panel to chart a practical route map this year to enable the NHS to get to 'net zero', becoming the world's first major health service to do so. 

Dr Nick Watts, of University College London, will chair the NHS Net Zero Expert Panel. He is a medical doctor and executive director of Lancet Countdown, the independent international expert group that tracks the links between climate change and health. The NHS in England is the only healthcare system in the world that is routinely reporting on greenhouse gas emissions. The Expert Panel will look at changes the NHS can make in its own activities; in its supply chain; and through wider partnerships - thereby also contributing to the government’s overall target for the UK. 

These include the Long Term Plan commitment to better use technology to make up to 30 million outpatient appointments redundant, sparing patients thousands of unnecessary trips to and from hospital. It is estimated that 6.7 billion road miles each year are from patients and their visitors travelling to the NHS.

It will also look at changes that can be made in the NHS's medical devices, consumables and pharmaceutical supply, and areas the NHS can influence such as the energy sector as the health service moves to using more renewable energy.

The Panel will submit an interim report to NHS England in the summer with the final report expected in the Autumn, ahead of the COP26 International Meeting in Glasgow.

NHS chief executive Sir Simon Stevens said:

“With almost 700 people dying potentially avoidable deaths due to air pollution every week we are facing a health emergency as well as a climate emergency.

“Patients and the public rightly want the NHS to deliver for them today, and to help safeguard the future health of our children and grandchildren.

“While the NHS is already a world leader in sustainability, as the biggest employer in this country comprising nearly a tenth of the UK economy, we're both part of the problem and part of the solution. 

“Indeed if health services across the world were their own country, they'd be the fifth-largest emitter on the planet.

“That's why today we are mobilising our 1.3million staff to take action for a greener NHS, and it's why we'll be working with the world’s leading experts to help set a practical, evidence-based and ambitious date for the NHS to reach net zero.”

Dr Nick Watts, chair of the new NHS Expert Panel, said: 

“The impact of climate change on our health is there for all to see and at the Lancet Countdown, we have amassed the evidence to encourage health systems across the world to take action.

“The NHS in England leads the world in taking action on climate change and improving public health along the way, so I am delighted to have been asked by Sir Simon Stevens to help chart a route to a net zero health service.

“Everyone who works in healthcare has a responsibility to take action on the health emergency posed by climate change, and I encourage all NHS staff to join the campaign to feed in their ideas and help drive this forward.”

In addition to the expert panel, Sir Simon announced two other measures the NHS would now be taking.

The NHS will be taking immediate action in 2020, with a proposed new NHS Standard Contract calling on hospitals to reduce carbon from buildings and estates, whilst switching to less polluting anaesthetic gases, better asthma inhalers, and encouraging more active travel for staff.

The health service will also now launch its own grassroots campaign ‘For a Greener NHS’ to encourage staff and hospitals to cut their impact on people’s health and the environment. 

The ‘For A Greener NHS’ campaign will be supported by the UK Health Alliance on Climate Change - which includes representative bodies covering over 650,000 NHS staff. The campaign will build on the work already underway to help trusts and staff to cut emissions, energy use and waste, including phasing out oil and coal boilers and increased use of LED lighting and electric vehicles.

Staff and local NHS organisations are being encouraged to feed in ideas to the Expert Panel, and evidence of steps they may have already taken within their own hospital. A new website https://www.england.nhs.uk/greenernhs/ will help local NHS bodies to share ideas and ramp up initiatives that are already working across the health service.

Collectively the NHS’ 1.3million staff could make a huge impact on the campaign. For example, each person switching to refillable water bottles instead of plastic bottles could save 65kgCO₂ per year. One London trust showed that just by turning off printers, computers and other equipment overnight and managing heat loss each staff member was able to reduce CO2 emissions by an average of 70kg a year.

Dr Lucy Williams, Royal College of Anaesthetists Council Lead for Sustainability, said:

“The NHS Long Term Plan commits the health service to reducing its carbon footprint, and has challenged the specialty of anaesthesia to deliver 2% of this reduction by transforming anaesthetic practices. The NHS produces higher emissions than the global average for healthcare with 5% of the carbon footprint from acute organisations coming from anaesthetic gases. Just one hour’s use of desflurane gas is the equivalent of driving 230 miles.

“Meeting targets will require a fundamental shift in clinical practices – NHS hospitals and their anaesthetic departments and teams must recognise the need for change and take appropriate actions. The College is committed to collaborating with the Association of Anaesthetists and other stakeholders to promote sustainability and work towards increasing the use of less harmful anaesthetic agents, amongst other actions. Together we can help tackle the climate ‘health emergency’ and deliver a more environmentally sustainable future.”