Paediatric clinics in community hospitals helping to reduce carbon footprint

Holding paediatric clinics in community hospitals closer to people’s homes is helping to reduce BSW ICB’s carbon footprint by cutting down on travel for families attending them, new research currently underway is expected to show.

Samanatha Hodges, a paediatric Senior House Officer based at the Royal United Hospital in Bath and Dr Steve Jones, a consultant paediatrician, are currently finalising a piece of research they have been carrying out for the past few months which they hope to present to scientists at the BMA Net Zero Clinical Conference in July.

Although they ate still finalising data, they say the research findings show that running paediatric clinics in community hospitals is saving carbon emissions by reducing travel times and distances compared to if the patients attend RUH for their appointment.

Their results show in one month of clinics, 2143 miles were saved from patients attending clinic appointments closer to their homes. The average miles per saved per clinic was 97.

The initiative also has the added benefit of saving costs for families travelling to appointments and aligns with other BSW-wide strategic goals in terms of moving care closer to people’s homes.

It also strongly aligns with BSW Together ICS’s recently published Green Plan which sets out ambitious plans to reduce the environmental and carbon impact of our health and care estate, services and wider activities over the next 3 years, with a view to achieving net zero by 2040.

Simon Yeo, Assistant Director for Estates at BSW ICB said:

“This is just one example of the great work underway across BSW ICB to help reduce the carbon footprint of our services and tackle the climate emergency we are facing.

It is through the incremental steps taken through joint initiatives like this that the BSW Together ICS can work together to provide reimagined, greener services.”

Read more about how BSW Together plans to tackle climate emergency here: Greener BSW

Council

You can also read about the latest green activities and good news stories from across the region from the South West Greener NHS team in the South West Greener NHS Bulletin