Accelerating climate action: the role of health professionals

Dear Editor,

I applaud the BMJ for committing to an entire issue on the Climate emergency and welcomed the contributions from colleagues on a wide range of issues. However, what was missing was a complete guide about what needs to happen now, what can the healthcare system and healthcare professionals DO about these overwhelming challenges?

Now that you’ve spent time engaging with the problem, what are concrete next steps that can be taken? Here, we outline the role every organisation and individual can play, and how you can start to identify your role in this global emergency.

Healthcare professionals have roles as individuals, but also as staff, and by proxy leadesr, within a healthcare system which gives a particular voice within society.

As an individual:

- Educate yourself on the climate emergency and environmental breakdown, and the solutions needed to tackle it
- Identify those you are most likely to influence (often family and friends) and have conversations with them about climate change and environmental breakdown
- Add your voice to national campaigns, for example against the new Cambo oil drilling or the Coal mine in Cumbria – this is particularly important as healthcare professionals are some of the most trusted voices in society
- Be courageous – be the person who starts the conversation with your friends, family and colleagues, ask the questions that others don’t want to ask.

As a leader in the healthcare system:

Although some of the specific examples within this article are UK / NHS specific, many principles will apply to other healthcare systems and contexts, and networks of active healthcare professionals are now in existence in many countries across the world.

- Join networks so that you can work with and learn from others; such as Health Declares, the Centre for Sustainable Healthcare networks in the UK. This means you can meet others in your speciality or geographic region to team up with and work together.
- Map the leading healthcare bodies and identify how they need to change for example in the UK, consider the role of NHS England and Improvement, Health Education England, the General Medical Council, The British Medical Association, Royal Colleges, and others and consider which of those organisations needs to change, how, and gather a group together to campaign for change. Particularly important is to consider if you have power in one of these organisations, for example as a voting member of a trade union, and bring proposals for change.
- Advocate for the healthcare system to change; you could choose to focus on changes in your speciality, in your local hospital or practice or in wider society. And don’t be easily disheartened, if you don’t succeed, try again!

What is absolutely evident is that, unless we see radical and widespread change, both in society and in our healthcare systems, we will not limit global temperature rises as we need to protect society, the environment and human and animal health.

So, in the name of COP26, take (at least) one action from this list, and feel free to get in touch if you want support to get started.

Dear Editor

I agree that we all individually have a responsibility. So does the NHS. Well, from my perspective the NHS is only paying lip service to climate action at present. My NHS trust hospital has no real recycling facilities. There is no recycling of paper. There are a few scattered bins in the cafeteria for "recycling dry waste" but I am told by the kitchen staff that no recycling happens as everybody throws literally anything into those bins. Take away foods and beverages are put into polystyrene cups and containers (which are not only environmentally problematic to recycle but have also been implicated in releasing dangerous compounds when they come into contact with hot beverages and foods, dioxins, which some consider to be carcinogenic). Take-away cutlery is plastic. Not to mention that there is no facility for recycling the endless amounts of PPE.

When some of us approached the hospital administration requesting them to give some thought to providing more environmentally friendly options instead of polystyrene, the hospital administration dismissed us, in fact, I feel we were belittled. My understanding is that this is not an isolated example and that there are other hospitals all over Scotland which have no recycling facilities and where climate action does not seem to be a priority. Surely, by now, we all know that climate action has to include addressing the issue of waste disposal and recycling. I see no evidence that the NHS is taking any of those issues seriously. As one of the biggest employers in Britain the NHS has a huge responsibility and also huge potential to make a real difference. So far I do not see them taking this role seriously enough.