Environmental Sustainability Policy

We recognize that the climate and ecological emergency is also a health emergency.

 

We recognize that the health impacts of climate change are unfairly distributed and exacerbate existing health inequalities.

 

We commit to acting in both a professional and personal capacity to reduce these severe risk to public health and global health.

 

What we are doing:

 

Without compromising the quality of care and patient safety, we aim to deliver our services with the minimum impact on our environment.

 

We try where possible to reduce the use of paper by encouraging staff to avoid printing documents and to correspond with clients electronically where possible.

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We recycle clean paper, cardboard, glass, tins & cans, plastic bottles, food waste, printer cartridges, electrical equipment, and batteries, setting up the appropriate bins at various sites in and around the practice.

 

Our confidential paper waste is disposed by Shred—It, part of the Stericycle group, who collect and recycle our waste securely.

 

To improve energy efficiency, we encourage our colleagues to enable power save mode for intermittent use of appliances and switch off appliances at the end of the day.

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Where possible, we also encourage our colleagues to cycle or use public transport to come to work rather than driving their own cars. 

We aim to educate our patients through promotional material on the benefits of a lower emission lifestyle, recognising that an increased uptake of walking and cycling can bring personal health, as well as environmental benefits.

 

Prescribing:

 

We recognise that prescribing is the largest contributors of carbon emissions within general practice. To combat this, we will encourage:

Patient use of the Electronic Prescription Service (EPS),

 

Regular medication reviews,

 

Staff awareness and training on lower carbon prescribing alternatives, for example offering dry powder or metered dose inhalers to asthma patients

 

Referring:

 

We ask all clinicians to be responsible referrers, reducing unnecessary investigations as good clinical practice whilst delivering the added benefit of a lower carbon footprint.