Stevens launches ‘For a Greener NHS’ campaign

Following the launch of the Climate Assembly UK, Simon Stevens has announced that the NHS and its staff will step up action to tackle the climate ‘health emergency’ this year.

The NHS England chief executive said that the initiative will help prevent illnesses, reduce pressure on A&E departments and potentially save tens of thousands of lives. The health and care system in England is responsible for an estimated five per cent of the country’s carbon footprint, so the programme will aim to tackle both the causes of air pollution and climate change.

A recent study by Kings College London looking at nine English cities demonstrated that on high pollution days there are 673 additional out-of-hospital cardiac arrests and hospital admissions for stroke and asthma, with spikes in ambulance 999 call outs. Air pollution is linked to killer conditions like heart disease, stroke and lung cancer, contributing to around 36,000 deaths annually.

Stevens has announced three steps the NHS will take during 2020 to tackle this problem. Firstly, NHS England is establishing an expert panel to chart a practical route map this year to enable the NHS to get to ‘net zero’, becoming the world’s first major health service to do so. The NHS Net Zero Expert Panel, which will be led by Dr Nick Watts of University College London, will submit an interim report to NHS England in the summer with the final report expected in the Autumn, ahead of the COP26 International Meeting in Glasgow.

Additionally, the NHS will be taking immediate action in 2020, with a proposed new NHS Standard Contract calling on hospitals to reduce carbon from buildings and estates, whilst switching to less polluting anaesthetic gases, better asthma inhalers, and encouraging more active travel for staff.

Thirdly, the health service will also now launch its own grassroots campaign ‘For a Greener NHS’ to encourage staff and hospitals to cut their impact on people’s health and the environment, which will be supported by the UK Health Alliance on Climate Change. The campaign will build on the work already underway to help trusts and staff to cut emissions, energy use and waste, including phasing out oil and coal boilers and increased use of LED lighting and electric vehicles.

Stevens said: “With almost 700 people dying potentially avoidable deaths due to air pollution every week we are facing a health emergency as well as a climate emergency. Patients and the public rightly want the NHS to deliver for them today, and to help safeguard the future health of our children and grandchildren.

“While the NHS is already a world leader in sustainability, as the biggest employer in this country comprising nearly a tenth of the UK economy, we’re both part of the problem and part of the solution. Indeed if health services across the world were their own country, they’d be the fifth-largest emitter on the planet. That’s why today we are mobilising our 1.3 million staff to take action for a greener NHS, and it’s why we’ll be working with the world’s leading experts to help set a practical, evidence-based and ambitious date for the NHS to reach net zero.”

Watts said: “The impact of climate change on our health is there for all to see and at the Lancet Countdown, we have amassed the evidence to encourage health systems across the world to take action. The NHS in England leads the world in taking action on climate change and improving public health along the way, so I am delighted to have been asked by Sir Simon Stevens to help chart a route to a net zero health service.

“Everyone who works in healthcare has a responsibility to take action on the health emergency posed by climate change, and I encourage all NHS staff to join the campaign to feed in their ideas and help drive this forward.”

Dr Richard Smith, chair of the UK Health Alliance on Climate Change, said: “The World Health Organisation has described climate change as ‘the defining health challenge of our time’, and through heatwaves, flooding, and air pollution, it is already shortening the lives of people in the UK and around the world. But we know that actions that are good for the planet are also good for our health. By reducing our emissions, for example by cycling or walking instead of driving, we can simultaneously improve our health and the health of the planet.

“Health professionals have a duty to protect the health of the public so it’s fantastic that the NHS is leading by example and taking action to end its contribution to this climate and emergency. The UK Health Alliance on Climate Change, which represents over 650,000 health professionals working across the NHS, fully supports this campaign.”

Jonathan Ashworth MP, Labour’s Shadow Health Secretary, responded: “Climate change is one of the greatest threats we face and Labour has long called for the NHS to take climate change seriously, which is why I outlined plans for a Green New Deal for our NHS last year to reduce the NHS’s carbon footprint. These are welcome steps from NHS England but we will need to go further and faster in the future to reduce the NHS’s carbon emissions.”