The NHS has committed to reduce its carbon footprint but, aside from ensuring that legislative targets are reached, the benefits of decreasing greenhouse gas emissions are well documented. Yet the NHS faces increasing financial and service pressures; meaning that ‘green’ working is not always at the forefront of consideration. Many NHS organisations in England procure paper through the NHS Supply Chain Core Stationary list, which only contains paper produced from virgin (non-recycled) sources. As such, out of the 3.6 million reams of paper procured through NHS Supply Chain, only 29,000 were produced from recycled sources.
In Sustainability in Ophthalmology the Royal College of Ophthalmologists calls for leadership from the profession and the healthcare industry to develop best practice and integrate these into our service redesign. This is a position paper from the College, designed for Ophthalmologists, alli
The Oxford University Hospitals Trust has reduced the amount of waste going to landfill or incineration by introducing recycling into the operating theatre setting. Previously all waste from clinical areas was disposed of via orange clinical waste bags.
This is a poster I presented to the Institute for Healthcare Improvement in Orlando, Florida in December 2010, following work I'd done in the day theatre suite of Jersey General Hospital.
SAP is a programme to support clinical teams in taking action for sustainability. Structured around two facilitated workshops, SAP helps front-line staff to learn about sustainable healthcare, focus in on their priorities and put together a green action plan. The action plan can then