Are we doing enough to sustain the environmental future of healthcare?

‘A sustainable health and care system is achieved by delivering high quality care and improved public health without exhausting natural resources or causing severe ecological damage’ (SDU, 2017).

The effects of climate change aren’t just limited to temperatures worldwide- the subsequent impact on health and disease is often overshadowed by its environmental consequences. Margaret Chan, previous Director-General of the WHO, forecast an attributable increase in deaths from malnutrition, diarrhoea and infectious disease in her 2008 statement, and the UCL-Lancet Commission have described climate change as “the biggest threat to global health in the 21st century.”

The UK, including the NHS, is legally obligated to reduce its carbon footprint by 80% by 2050. This target was outlined in the Climate Change Act, 2008. In order to make this reduction a reality, measurement of emissions has become a pressing issue. A carbon footprint measures the total greenhouse gas emissions caused directly and indirectly by a person, organisation, event or product and in 2004, NHS England was responsible for the emission of 18 million tonnes of CO2 (3% of the UK total).

Recent work by Duane (2017) has shown that dentistry does not have the typical carbon emission pattern classically shown in other areas of healthcare. The biggest contributors to the dental carbon footprint include staff and patient travel, and procurement- areas that can be difficult to address and gain reduction in. If the NHS carbon reduction targets are to be achieved, it cannot continue to deliver care as it always has without change: Mortimer (2010) has described how new low-carbon models of care are needed, as is a focus on preventing illness and imparting a greater responsibility to patients in managing their health.

The Centre for Sustainable Healthcare in Oxford has created Dental Susnet, an online network designed to bring together staff, patients and others engaged in dental services to share ideas and resources for transforming to sustainable dental health services.