Greener Lives Are Healthier, Happier Lives.

It’s worth reminding ourselves that trying to live a greener low carbon life is good for our health and wellbeing, as well as the planet.

Top tips for a greener, healthier life!
• Swapping your car for a bike on a regular basis will help you lose weight, get fitter and reduce your risk of diabetes and coronary heart disease.

• Leaving your car at home to walk into town means you can say hello to your friends and neighbours, take a break from the rush and boost your happy hormones.

• Better still, pulling a shopping trolley will give you a good work out.

• Less car journeys also mean less air pollution, so less asthma attacks and chest infections. Less car accidents too.

• Eating more vegetables and cutting down on meat and dairy produce will reduce your cholesterol and cut the risk of bowel cancer, at the same time as greatly reducing your carbon footprint.

• And what about digging the vegetable patch rather than going to Tescos?

So what is the NHS doing about all this?
The ‘NHS Sustainable Development Unit’ (SDU) has been set up to look at the big picture. The NHS is responsible for a surprising 25% of total public sector carbon emissions in England and Wales. Around 20% of this is staff and patient travel, 20% is the energy use in NHS buildings and a massive 60% of emissions are from ‘stuff’. For example, medicines, instruments and hospital food.

So what can be done to reduce NHS carbon emissions in the future?
We should spend much more on preventive medicine (currently only 4% of the NHS budget) and encourage low-carbon lifestyles that have a positive impact on our health. Increased use of information technology and tele-medicine, should help cut down on patient travel, as should rationalising clinic visits so that we have more ‘one-stop shops’ rather than lots of visits for different tests. Drug companies and equipment suppliers need to look at ways of reducing packaging. Doctors need to take care in prescribing and avoid wastage, since the pharmaceutical industry is one of the most carbon intensive production systems around. Perhaps most importantly, we need to improve our record on contraception. After all, England is the 5th most densely populated country, with the highest rate of unplanned pregnancies in Europe. Professor John Guillebaud, the UKs most eminent family planning specialist, says ‘Isn’t contraception the medical professions prime contribution to sustainability?

Top tips for saving NHS carbon emissions:
• Keep yourself healthy – prevention is better than cure. Stop smoking, lose weight, cut down on alcohol, eat more veg and attend screening programmes.

• Avoid wasting medication - make sure you aren’t over-ordering and stockpiling medicines in your cupboard.

• Do you need to travel to the surgery? Is your problem something that could be followed up with a telephone call rather than a trip to the surgery?

• If you do need to visit the surgery can you go by bike or walk?• Can you get to the hospital by bus rather than car?

• Last but not least - use contraception carefully. Maybe consider a longer acting method such as the implant, injection or intrauterine device.

Further reading:
‘Saving Carbon, Improving Health: NHS Carbon Reduction Strategy 2009’
‘Fit for the Future’: 4 potential scenarios for a low carbon heath service in 2030
http://sustainablehealthcare.org.uk/
http://www.nhsforest.org/

Author: Sally Barnard, GP
Sally lives in Steyning, and is a GP in Portslade. She is a member of the Greening Campaign group in Steyning, Bramber and Upper Beeding, and works with the Brighton and Hove 10:10 Campaign to look at ways of reducing carbon emissions in GP practices in Brighton and Hove.

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