When I think of ‘Covid’ and ‘sustainability’, I immediately think ‘PPE’. Every orange bag that gets filled with single-use aprons, visors, gloves, gowns and masks (not to mention the plastic wrapping they all come in) makes me feel like I am single-handedly killing the planet. Thanks, Covid.
But has every Covid-fuelled change we’ve made been terrible? Thankfully not. I realised this when I came to renew my car insurance. As a community SLT, my mileage has always been relatively high, but when I saw the annual mileage that I’d previously estimated I’d do, I was shocked – there was no way I would drive that much now! So what has changed? Obviously, there was a period in 2020 when I did very few face-to-face visits, but that in itself was not sustainable. I work with adults with Learning Disabilities, many of whom find it very difficult or impossible to access teletherapy, so for me, switching to solely video appointments has never felt like a solution, though they do have their place. But even since resuming more face-to-face visits, my mileage has stayed much lower than pre-Covid levels.
I attribute this to two things: working from home, and working collaboratively with colleagues.
I live around 10 miles from the office, so there’s 20 miles each day saved already, since I used to very rarely work from home. A further consequence of this though, is that when I am going on visits, I will try to do as many as possible in one journey, and group these together geographically. My role covers all of Buckinghamshire, an area of 1564.95 km2 , so I try to cover as little of that in one day as I can! Recently, (staffing-levels allowing) my team has endeavoured to allocate cases geographically, taking on the cases closest to where we each live, so this also makes it easier to visit service users who live near to each other (and me!) in one trip, all without needing to visit the petrol station.
These changes are sustainable in more than one way: they reduce my carbon footprint; save the NHS some money in reducing my expenses claim; and contribute to a more socially sustainable model of healthcare, in which service users are seen more promptly and by a consistent and ‘familiar’ therapist, who is likely to be the therapist known to support staff. This shouldn’t be underestimated, as I can’t count the times support staff and carers have informally raised concerns with me about another service user’s communication or dysphagia, but wouldn’t necessarily have put a formal referral in to our team.
Am I still wrestling with the fact that PPE usage has a negative impact on the environment? Yes, and I’m working closely with colleagues to think of solutions and compromises (and hoping that PHE will publish some guidelines about reusable PPE options)
But for now, I’ll take comfort in the fact that my driving habits at work are becoming more sustainable (and enjoy the added bonus of cheaper car insurance!)
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