South West London green plan
The South West London green plan sets out how we will deliver a net-zero NHS in South West London by 2040.
Following the publication of ‘Delivering a net-zero National Health Service’ by NHS England, we have committed to deliver a range of programmes to make the necessary changes required to help achieve this ambition.
During the development of the first South West London Green Plan, we focused on making sure our NHS partners were engaged and committed to the targets we set.
Our green plan focuses on nine areas
- Workforce and system leadership
- Sustainable models of care
- Digital transformation
- Travel and transport
- Estates and facilities
- Medicines
- Supply chain and procurement
- Food and nutrition
- Adaptation
We have already shown evidence of delivery in boroughs. Croydon for example, has reduced CO2 by 18% (around 14,000 tonnes) since the 2013/14 baseline, has rolled out an estate-wide LED replacement programme and has reduced desflurane usage in advance of centrally recommended targets.
Kingston will provide the NHS’s first battery energy storage solution capex free and have replaced calorifiers with efficient plate heat exchangers.
We’ve also seen progress made in trusts. At the Royal Marsden, half a tonne of unwanted linen, uniforms and curtains have been recycled and reused, 91% of anaesthesia administered was total intravenous anaesthesia (TIVA), while St George’s is one of only two trusts to achieve sustainability accreditation with The Planet Mark. They have also appointed new energy brokers to achieve 100% renewable buy-in from the grid and have updated the green travel plan with detailed work progressing on infrastructure improvements.
At Central London Community Healthcare Trust, 100% renewable electricity contracts with REGO certificates for its tier 1 sites were purchased, have switched to 100% recycled paper, and all new vehicle leases were switched to 100% electric.
Another example of how South West London is responding to sustainable solutions to healthcare includes establishing ‘virtual wards’. These ‘wards’ allow patients who are well enough to be monitored virtually from their own home resulting in fewer patients travelling to hospitals and freeing up hospital beds.
In Merton, a ground-breaking partnership between South West Merton Primary Care Network and the London Ambulance Service is helping more patients receive key primary care services in their own homes while reducing the impact on the environment.
But we know we can do more. Across the nine areas of focus, we have agreed the following 2022 priorities:
- Kick-start a focus on our sustainability plans through a series of leadership and staff pledges
- Use only recycled paper in SWL, and reduce total paper usage year on year
- Create recycling points for metered-dose inhalers (MDI) in all GP surgeries and community pharmacies and ensure the provision of clear clinical guidance on appropriate inhaler usage to reduce MDI prescriptions
- Cut out all N2O wastage/leakage by 2023
- Keep desflurane usage to below 3% in 2022
- Go electric for patient, inter-site and courier transport by 2027
- Reduce carbon emissions from building by 20% vs 2020 rates by 2025