Integrating Environmental Sustainability into Quality Improvement - Starting from Zero

Hi all,

My name is James, and I am an academic F2 at East Kent University Hospitals Foundation NHS Trust, working in the medical education department.

I've taken on a project to improve the inclusion of environmental sustainability in the trust's quality improvement projects.

Baseline audit of the 211 QIPs completed in the last 18 months identified that just 6 projects (2%) included explicit inclusion of environmental sustainability. And of these 6 projects, no project quantified the carbon savings.

The trust has just published its Green Plan, which has a clear aim: To include environmental sustainability as a domain of quality improvement.

I've been working with the QIP team, who are motivated and engaged to support the inclusion of environmental sustainability into the QIP process, and we are exploring opportunities to achieve this.

I am looking for advice from other trusts, quality improvement teams, or clinicians who have been involved in changing governance processes to improve the inclusion of environmental sustainability within QIP.

We are currently considering adding an 'environmental sustainability' aspect to the QIP registration form, providing a checklist to prompt QIP mentors to consider how environmental sustainability might be included within the projects they support. This is going to be supplemented by a training session for the QIP mentors, as a survey has identified a clear training need.

Specific advice sought:

1. How do you motivate inclusion of environmental sustainability in QIP within the wider clinical workforce?
2. How do the QIP teams / Improvement Teams / Audit teams support or motivate the inclusion of environmental sustainability with QIP?
3. How are project leads supported within your trust to include environmental sustainability, particularly technical aspects such as carbon footprinting or measuring their impact?
4. How have trusts/QIP teams quantified the inclusion/completion of SusQI or the environmental impacts of their QIPs?
5.  

I am grateful for any advice from those who have changed or influenced governance processes at their trusts.

I'll check back here, but also please feel free to contact me at james.lee58@nhs.net