Adur Health Partnership has gained Gold Standard in the Green Impact for Health Awards through a determined approach to making the delivery of healthcare more sustainable.
They were one of five GP practices in Sussex to gain an award and the only one to attain Gold in the region (only 17 GP practices across the UK have managed to achieve Gold overall).
They have 4 sites across West Sussex, and over 190 staff serving over 36,000 patients, so tackling their emissions was not an easy feat. A Green Team made up of GPs, Pharmacists, Practice nurses, administrators and receptionists meet every 3 months, with all members volunteering their time to work on projects towards reducing their impact on the environment. It is an approach that has paid off with the recognition of this Gold award.
What is a Green Impact for Health award?
The awards are run by Greener Practice who are the leading network for sustainability in Primary Care. Green Impact for Health is an award-winning programme designed to support environmentally and socially sustainable practice. Simply put it is a long list of 125 recommendations that a practice can follow to reduce its carbon footprint. Points are allocated based on meeting these recommendations, and the more points you accrue the higher the rating of your award.
The recommendations are designed so that it is easy to make a start, such as improving recycling levels, but then also offers broader more holistic ways a practice can reduce its carbon emissions such as promoting self-care for patients with chronic diseases – because a healthier patient has a lower carbon footprint.
Daniel Hammond, a partner at Adur Health Partnership said, “In a way the award reflects how well we are looking after patients overall, reducing unnecessary prescribing and signposting patients to non-pharmaceutical interventions and not just how good we are at turning off the lights!” He is passionate about the difference the practice can make with these interventions.
Adur Health Partnership are not resting on their Gold laurels, with a big event planned for March with over 250 patients involved in a Big Green Inhaler Switch weekend as the carbon footprint from inhaler use is about 25% of the carbon emissions from Primary Care overall. Run entirely by staff and patient volunteers the event hopes to promote use of dry powder inhalers over metered dose inhalers, as they have a much lower carbon footprint.
Additional info
If you would like to find out more about Green Impact awards or register to apply please visit https://toolkit.sos-uk.org/greenimpact/giforhealth/login
If you would like to join the team at Adur Health Partnership please contact our HR Team via