The 2010 survey of Green Nephrology Local Representatives has revealed a range of local action under way, with cross-pollination of ideas from one renal centre to another. The survey identified a need for senior management support within Trusts, and for invest-to-save funding.
The results are available on the Green Nephrology Resources page - in full (although comments have been summarised) and as a single page summary for circulation and display. Also a powerpoint file to use as you wish.
They represent the first full year of the programme. In summary:
- There is a lot of support for green nephrology at a local level
- There is a high level of activity and desire to be active
- The main barriers are
- time
- lack of support at a senior management / Trust or Board level
- financial - failure to invest in cost saving initiatives (even where a good ROI has been demonstrated) because of initial start up costs.
Additionally, communications with Local Reps individually suggest that:
- Activity is spreading beyond renal services in Cornwall, Fife, Bradford and Glasgow for projects with generic application such as waste reduction and e-consultation.
- Cost and carbon savings are being demonstrated for individual projects
- There is evidence of replication of ideas between regions
Our focus for the future will be:
- Supporting local representatives
- Consolidate resource development – the website has undergone development and these Network pages now include downloadable resources, educational tools, more case studies, a “getting started” pack and blog facilities.
- Find a solution for the time and senior support problem – one idea has been to generate ‘Trust Bursaries’ to fund nursing staff for half a day per week to work on sustainable healthcare.
Thank you again to all the Local Reps for their contributions to the 2010 survey.
Dr Tara Collidge, Green Nephrology Fellow 2010-11
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