The Greener Practice Lancashire and Cumbria group started coming together in late 2023 with a small number of enthusiastic individuals and we now have almost 50 members on our WhatsApp Group, comprising staff from across Lancashire and Cumbria primary care, the ICB and medical students. We share information and opportunities on the WhatsApp group and case-studies and resources on our website: Greener NHS :: Home (icb.nhs.uk).
We would love to hear from anybody interested in joining us.
Achievements in our area over the last year include:
- Clinical Lead has trained over 100 trainee GPs. Trainees are encouraged to undertake a final year project around environmental sustainability.
- Series of 6 lunchtime webinars for Great Big Green week. Recorded are available on our Greener ICB internet site here. An average of 30 staff attended each session.
- 16% of our practices have nominated Green leads.
- Almost 40 GP practices signed up to Destination Net Zero programme which provides free audit, carbon reduction plan and funding advice. 23 have already received their audit from the Chamber of Commerce. This is now being offered to other areas within primary care. Half day in-person workshop took place in July and scheduled for September to share learning.
- Active Travel Lancashire has enabled 9 GP practices to improve their cycling infrastructure, 2 of which now use electric bikes for patient visits, further funding has recently been released and is currently being applied for.
- Environmental Sustainability at Regional Nursing and AHP Conference and Digital Town Hall. A staff member from all 275 practices has received an introduction to the Green Plan, usually via practice manager forums.
- Medicines Management team hosted a drop in session for practices to support sustainable medicines. Checklist is on the primary care area of the Greener ICB site here
- ICB decarbonisation bid to SALIX for £2m for Darwin and Yarnspinners healthcentres has been successful. This will be rolled out over the next 2 years.
- NuGreen granular waste audits piloted within 4 GP practices.
- Inclusion of ‘Kidzmed messaging’ in OptimiseRx for antihistamine liquids. The impact will be assessed in October.
- ICB Joint Working Project with Astra Zeneca to optimise asthma treatment: Implementation has begun across 5 different networks within the ICB. Completion due end of August and evaluation report available end of October re scalability.
- Small Business Research Initiative (SBRI) bid submitted by Redmoore Health was successful. £100k to be spent developing a digital roadmap to net zero- 10 practices have signed up to the pilot stage.
Chair – Dr Sarah Hopkins
Dr Sarah Hopkins is a GP and Clinical Lead for Greener NHS in Primary Care in Lancashire and South Cumbria. Sarah’s interest in sustainable healthcare stems from a concern at the rise of non-communicable ill health conditions and excessive use of prescription drugs to manage them. She believes the same lifestyle factors that cause chronic ill health also link directly to the climate crisis. She has developed an extended role in lifestyle medicine to begin to address this and is passionate about increasing skills in lifestyle medicine as a way of improving population and planetary health.
With a background in Medical Education she has taken this skill mix out to the GP training schemes across the ICB delivering workshops to GPs in training and encouraging them to embark on sustainable quality improvement projects as part of their training. She is working with the Green NHS team and hopes to work alongside Population Health to develop Sustainable Models of care especially in Asthma and Type 2 Diabetes.
Chair – Allison Sathiyanathan
Allison Sathiyanathan is the Net Zero Project Manager for Lancashire & South Cumbria. After working as a Medical Physicist for a number of years in London she moved to teach science in rural Zimbabwe and her interest in environmental sustainability began.
In her current role she has the opportunity to promote the green agenda within all sectors of the NHS and work with colleagues who are as equally passionate about the environment. Collaboration, both within the NHS and externally with other public organisations and the voluntary sector is key within her role and is the most efficient and effect way to make positive impact and change in culture.
If you are interested in joining us or want to find out more, please contact Allison by emailing: allison.sathiyanathan@nhs.net.