Intensive Care Society and British Association of Critical Care Nurses (BACCN) endorse the Critical Care Susnet

The Intensive Care Society and the British Association of Critical Care Nurses (BACCN) are proud to endorse the Centre for Sustainable Healthcare’s (CSH) Critical Care Susnet.

The climate emergency is a health emergency, threatening all alive today and the future of our planet. Not only will it result in significant destruction of our environment, but its worst effects will also have a lasting impact on the health of populations all over the world (1).

The health sector accounts for almost 5% of global carbon emissions (2), and the provision of care to the critically ill is particularly resource-intensive. We know we must minimise the environmental impact of our work wherever possible, in order to save both the planet and our patients, and that doing so has become increasing important to our community.

The Centre for Sustainable Healthcare’s Critical Care Susnet is a network where those working in intensive care can come together to share their sustainability-focussed projects and ideas. We are strongest and most effective when working together, which is why the British Association of Critical Care Nurses and the Intensive Care Society are delighted to announce our endorsement of the platform. Many useful resources are already available via the Susnet, to help our community tackle climate change, and we look forward to seeing this expand in the future.

The network is open to anyone working in ICU and can be accessed via the Centre of Sustainable Healthcare’s website.

To celebrate our partnership Heather Baid, Principal Lecturer, University of Brighton will be hosting the first bi-monthly Critical Care Susnet Sharing Hour at 7.30pm on Thursday 14 July. These sessions are free and open to anyone interested in improving the sustainability of intensive care practice, including all disciplines and roles. Registrations are now open.

You can read the British Association of Critical Care Nurses’ full statement on sustainability here.

You can find more information about the Intensive Care Society’s Sustainability Project here.

1 Watts, N., Amann, M., Arnell, N., Ayeb-Karlsson, S., Beagley, J., Belesova, K., Boykoff, M., Byass, P., Cai, W., Campbell-Lendrum, D. and Capstick, S., 2020. The 2020 report of The Lancet Countdown on health and climate change: responding to converging crises

2 Karliner, J., Slotterback, S., Boyd, R., Ashby, B., Steele, K., 2019. Health care’s climate footprint: how the health sector contributes to the global climate crisis and opportunities for action.