Greener Prescribing
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:
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Prevention:
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Detecting disease early: see Atrial Fibrillation Hypertension (BLMK Medicines Website Pages)
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NHS England » NHS Prevention Programme
- BLMK ICB Primary Care Prevention Delivery Plan
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The Importance of Preventative Healthcare – Harley Street Health Centre
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Patient Self Care:
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BLMK ICB Self Care Toolkit for Care Homes (BLMK Medicines Website page)
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NHS England » What does ‘self-care’ mean and how can it help?
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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
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Encouraging Social Prescribing NHS England » Social prescribing and back-to-nature approaches Links between natural environments and mental health
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- Lean Service Delivery:
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- 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)
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- Low carbon alternatives:
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- Inhaler Choices (BLMK Medicines Website page)
- Strategies to support reduced Inhaler carbon emissions (BLMK Medicines Website page)
- RAG rating on BLMK Formularies
- Consider reduction in prescribing of liquid medicines, especially in the young: this training course supports teaching children to swallow pills: KidzMed – elearning for healthcare
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- Sustainable operational resource use:
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- 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
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