Greener Prescribing

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The NHS is responsible for around 4-5% of the United Kingdom’s carbon footprint.

Medicines account for around 24% of that, and around a third of the carbon footprint of Primary Care

Embedding lower-carbon practices in healthcare is imperative to counteract the effect that climate change is having on our population (WHO, October 2023)

.  This page is dedicated to support greener prescribing choices, as well as providing resources for sustainable practices to support the NHS Green plan.

Our aim is to become NetZero by 2040 for emissions we control directly, and 2045 for emissions we can influence.

 

The Centre for Sustainable Healthcare has developed these five principles, which are designed to support healthcare professionals

   

 

The following list of resources supports those principles:

1. Prevention:

   • • • Detecting disease early: see Atrial Fibrillation   Hypertension (BLMK Medicines Website Pages)

       • NHS England » NHS Prevention Programme

       • BLMK ICB Primary Care Prevention Delivery Plan

       • The Importance of Preventative Healthcare – Harley Street Health Centre

2. Patient Self Care:

   • • • BLMK ICB Self Care Toolkit for Care Homes (BLMK Medicines Website page)

       • NHS England » What does ‘self-care’ mean and how can it help?

       • Certain dressings for leg ulcers and lymphoedema that promote self care and improve compliance  are now available on the BLMK Wound Management Formulary, to order via ONPOS – Online Non Prescription Ordering Service

       • Encouraging Social Prescribing NHS England » Social prescribing and back-to-nature approaches Links between natural environments and mental health
3. Lean Service Delivery:
   • • • Using trusted NHS suppliers who have supported the NHS Green Plan (Greener NHS » Suppliers) such as NHS Supply Chain
       • Procuring dressings directly from the BLMK Wound Management Formulary via ONPOS – Online Non Prescription Ordering Service instead of prescribing them has several advantages including reducing patient treatment times and improving quality of care.
       • Reduction in medication waste (see Waste Medicines page)
4. Low carbon alternatives:
   • • • Inhaler Choices (BLMK Medicines Website page)
       • Strategies to support reduced Inhaler carbon emissions (BLMK Medicines Website page)
       • RAG rating on BLMK Formularies
       • Use the Medicines Carbon Footprint Formulary to consider alternative medicines with a lower carbon footprint
       • Consider reduction in prescribing of liquid medicines, especially in the young:  this training course supports teaching children to swallow pills: KidzMed – elearning for healthcare
       • SUSQI PROJECT REPORT Kapsule Kids
5. Sustainable operational resource use:
   1. 1. • NHS England » Moving towards a greener general practice – case study for one practice who made a number of simple changes
         • Home Page – CarbonCalculator a free tool to calculate a practice’s carbon footprint
         • Greener Practice: Sustainability in general practice (RCGP)
         • RCGP’s Green Impact for Health Toolkit– requires a login but free to use
         • Greener NHS :: 10 point green plan for practices

NEW _ PCC Events – On the path to net zero – sustainability in primary care  Thursday 20 November 2025 (10.00-12.00)
Online training session

Further resources:

BLMK ICB Sites:

Sustainability in Primary Care – BLMK ICB

RCGP Towards greener prescribing in general practice, March 2025

Green Social Prescribing:

Launch of Green Social Prescribing Innovation Community – latest news from NASP | NASP

NHS England » Green social prescribing

NASP welcomes inclusion of social prescribing in the new NHS guidance for Neighbourhood Health – Latest news from The National Academy for Social Prescribing | NASP

Principles of Sustainability

The UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs – Sustainable Development lists goals for sustainable development.  Goal 3 is “Ensure healthy lives and promote wellbeing for all at all ages”: THE 17 GOALS | Sustainable Development

Greener Practice – Greener Practice – UK’s primary care sustainability network

Home | Sustainable Healthcare Networks Hub to help build a sustainable healthcare community, learn, and collaborate with others and positively fight the climate crisis.

What is SusQI? | Centre for Sustainable Quality Improvement “We at the Centre for Sustainable Healthcare believe that by integrating sustainability into quality improvement, social and environmental challenges in healthcare can be addressed as a core part of professional practice, using a recognised method for change.”

Pharmacy Declares Climate conscious pharmacy professionals based in the United Kingdom.

RPS Sustainability Policies

Greener Pharmacy – RPS Greener Pharmacy Guides and Toolkit

Learning

Environmentally Sustainable Healthcare – elearning for healthcare Building a Net Zero NHS and SusQI courses

Sustainable Healthcare Learning run by CSH

KidzMed – elearning for healthcare

Net Zero and Social Value training for Procurement staff

Green Impact in Dentistry Green Impact is delivered by Students Organising for Sustainability (SOS-UK) and designed to provide practical advice and tips to dental teams across the UK, that want to improve their sustainability.

 

How to be more green – tips and tricks for everyday life:

100 Easy Eco-Friendly Ways to Save Money in 2025 – Green Tulip

7 lazy ways to be environmentally friendly | Friends of the Earth