A physician’s guide to sustainable clinical practice
The climate crisis is a health crisis. It poses a significant and growing threat to human health. In the UK, rising temperatures, air pollution and the spread of vector-borne diseases are already affecting population health.
Those working in the NHS will be the first to see the health effects of climate change, if they have not done so already. A growing number of patients are presenting with conditions that are worsened by environmental factors and physicians must be prepared to respond.
The Green physician toolkit from the Royal College of Physicians (RCP) brings together evidence-based guidance and case studies to help you embed sustainable practices into everyday clinical practice.
The links between climate change and health
Building your understanding of the links between health and climate change is the first step towards becoming a green physician.
Explore
Actions to deliver more sustainable healthcare
There are actions that all physicians can adopt to reduce the environmental impact of healthcare and adapt to climate change.
Explore
RCP case study zone
Explore the case study zone to see how NHS staff are taking action to reduce the environmental impact of healthcare delivery.
ExploreWhy sustainable healthcare matters
Without strong action to cut emissions, mean UK temperatures could rise by 2–3°C by the end of the century – bringing more deadly heatwaves, rising illness and injury, and overwhelming demand on NHS services.
The NHS is not only on the frontlines of the response to this crisis, but it is also a big contributor to it. In England, the NHS accounts for around 40% of public sector emissions and 4–5% of total national emissions.
Through the Health and Care Act 2022, the NHS in England became the first health system to legislate for net zero targets, committing to achieving net zero for the emissions it directly controls by 2040.
Since 2019/20, the NHS in England has cut emissions by 14%. This is a strong start, but reaching net zero will require making every part of healthcare more sustainable. As one of the UK’s largest public sector emitters, the NHS must lead this transformation.
Working across acute, outpatient and community settings, physicians are uniquely placed to drive this change. While prioritising sustainability can be difficult amid high clinical demand, doing so often enables better patient outcomes and can help reduce costs, through more efficient and low carbon care.
Prevention must be at the heart of this approach. Helping people to stay well reduces the need for costly, carbon-intensive healthcare and lowers the emissions and waste generated by treating avoidable ill health. We must also minimise unproductive or unwanted healthcare activity.
Get in touch
If you have any feedback or questions about the Green Physician Toolkit, please get in touch. We would welcome hearing more about any barriers you have faced in implementing sustainable clinical practice in your area of medicine – this will help the RCP to advocate the government and NHS to remove these barriers. Please email policy@rcp.ac.uk.
The Green Physician Toolkit was developed in consultation with a short-term clinical reference group, comprising of physicians from a range of specialties, as well as patient and academic representatives. Further feedback was provided by the RCP’s advisory group on healthcare sustainability and climate change and approved by RCP Council prior to publication.
- Dr Aklak Choudhury
- Dr Anna Moore
- Dr Beth Griffith
- Dr Bryony Alderman
- Dr Daniel Smith
- Dr Florence Wedmore
- Dr Glenis Scadding
- Dr Jamie Phillips
- Dr Kate Crossland
- Dr Luke Hunt
- Dr Mark Harber (chair)
- Dr Matthew Lee
- Dr Philip Oddie
- Dr Rowan Harwood
- Dr Victoria Knott
- Dr Vincent Simpson
- Dr Zuzanna Sawicka
-
Alice Joy
- Sophia Lentzos