Putting sustainability in the GP curriculum

In February 2024 Lancashire and South Cumbria (LSC) ICB appointed a clinical lead for net zero in primary care. The purpose of this post was to increase engagement with clinicians in primary care with the NHS net zero target.

The NHS has declared that it will reduce by 80% the emissions it has direct control over between 2028 and 2032.

The clinician appointed was a general practioner with a background in medical education and through their links with the GP training schemes a series of workshops were offered. Four training schemes were sent an invitation offering to deliver the workshop and three accepted. The workshop was delivered four times, as one scheme asked to run it twice for different year groups. Around 100 GP trainees therefore attended the workshops overall.

The workshops content included explaining about the net zero targets, background scientific information about climate change. The impact of climate change on health and ways in which healthcare is damaging the environment. The workshops also looked at tools to support sustainability in primary care including the LSC ICB 10 point green plan for practices and the RCGP sustainability toolkit.

Some important themes were looked at that they want the whole ICB to adopt, including inhaler optimisation (inhaler propellants are 23,500 times more potent at warming the climate than carbon), reducing unnecessary PPE use and reducing unnecessary liquid medication use (the carbon foot print of liquid paracetamol is 15% higher than tablets for example).

There was then time for the GP trainees to reflect on sustainability issues in their own workplaces. These ideas were discussed as a group and encouragement given that trainees take these ideas back to their workplaces and put the ideas into practice as their mandatory quality improvement project or leadership project.

One trainee has already submitted a completed quality improvement project. A meeting was organised at their workplace and the practice staff chose areas where they would like to make improvements. This included medication optimisation, rationalising infection prevention and reduced resource usage.

The GP trainees were also given the opportunity to join the local greener general practice group. Initially, contact details were collected but interest was high and so a QR code was used to allow people to join the WhatsApp group directly.

With the numbers of the greener general practice group growing, it has allowed for a regional group (Lancashire and Cumbria) to be formed in the greener practice network, whereas previously the group linked in with Manchester, Chester and Merseyside.