The Royal College of Physicians (RCP) has published a Green physician toolkit that brings together the evidence on health and climate change, and suggests actions that physicians can take in their day-to-day practice.
Climate change is one of the biggest threats to health – 2022 was the hottest year on record in the UK, causing nearly 3,000 excess deaths during five heat periods, with the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) projecting the potential for heat-related deaths to increase 580% to 10,889 each year between now and the 2050s.
With the NHS responsible for around 40% of the UK’s public sector emissions and 4% of total emissions, in 2020 the health service in England committed to reach net zero on all direct emissions by 2040. Physicians have a vital role to play in helping the NHS reach its net zero goal – changes to clinical practice and how care is delivered, whether large or small, will make an important contribution to reducing the environmental impact of the health service.
The Green physician toolkit suggests a range of actions that physicians can take in their day-to-day practice to help mitigate and adapt to the impacts of climate change, including:
- reducing unnecessary prescribing by using shared decision-making approaches with patients to reduce the environmental burden of medications that are no longer useful
generating less waste - reducing blood testing where clinically appropriate
- advocating for sustainable practices such as including sustainability as a standing item in all clinical governance meetings
- limiting the environmental impact of travel
- participating in sustainable quality improvement projects within your organisation through a Green Team competition
- communicating with patients about climate change to help them understand how it will affect their health, and how to protect themselves.
The toolkit also brings together the evidence showing the impact of climate change on health, with the goal of educating as many physicians as possible on this issue. Case studies from across the NHS are showcased to exemplify how physicians can adopt these actions into their day-to-day practice.
You can download the toolkit below, and find further information about the RCP’s policy calls on this issue here. We’d welcome suggestions for additional actions to be included, or to hear about the barriers you may face in implementing actions from the toolkit – please send your feedback to policy@rcp.ac.uk.
We also want to hear about the good work happening in the physician community to reduce the environmental impact of healthcare within your specialty area. You can share examples of good sustainable practice by submitting a case study here.
The Green physician toolkit was developed through the RCP sustainability in healthcare and climate change advisory group which comprises the RCP academic vice president, special adviser and deputy special adviser on sustainability, external sustainability experts and membership and patient carer network representatives. The document was approved by RCP Council.
Note: The toolkit was updated on 23/07/2024 to include additional background information in the first two paragraphs of case study 1, add the authorship, and to rectify broken hyperlinks.