The latest on sustainable healthcare

Thursday 04 August 2022

GGHH News

Early bird sale finishes tomorrow! Greening the Healthcare Sector Forum

It's almost time for our annual sustainable healthcare forum, Greening the Healthcare Sector! The forum will be held on Awabakal country (Newcastle) and also virtually on Friday 7 October. Early bird ticket sales end tomorrow, Friday 5 August!

The forum will discuss important questions on how we can drive systems change for sustainable healthcare.

If you are interested in improving the environmental footprint of healthcare or would like to connect with other like-minded individuals, purchase your tickets and learn more

Welcome to our new GGHH members!

We’re delighted to welcome the following health institutions as members of the Global Green & Healthy Hospital (GGHH) network:

NSW Ministry of Health
Barwon Health, Victoria
Western District Health Service, Victoria
Doctors for the Environment Australia
Mercy Radiology, New Zealand

GGHH Pacific now has 126 members. Together, we represent 2,206+ hospitals and health services across Australia and New Zealand. It’s wonderful to see more health institutions committed to tackling their environmental footprint.

GGHH Pacific is free to join for any healthcare institutions! Find more on our website or email [email protected]

GGHH case studies

A green future For Green Labs – Peter Mac

Green Labs at Peter Mac aimed to educate lab workers to reduce waste and recycle effectively while conducting research. This initiative resulted in significant cost savings and diversion of plastics from landfill. Read more on GGHH connect

Reuse of untouched oral nutrition supplements – Cairns and Hinterland Hospital

Dietetics and the infection control team collaborated on a process and policy to sterilise and re-serve oral nutrition supplements that were otherwise bound for landfill. Read more on GGHH connect

Delivering a positive future – Fiona Stanley Hospital

Fiona Stanley Hospital's excellent recycling program covers bottles, paper, cardboard, soft plastics, syringes and single use metal instrument buckets. Read more on GGHH connect

Removing desflurane – the Fiona Stanley Fremantle Hospitals Group Experience

The complete removal of desflurane resulted in significant reduction in greenhouse gas emissions and cost. Read more on GGHH connect

Sustainable Healthcare News

UK’s Health and Care Act

On Friday 1 July, the UK enacted its Health and Care Act 2022 which legislated the National Health Service’s duties in relation to climate change. Provisions include a requirement to contribute to meeting the UK’s net zero target, and adapting to predicted impacts of climate change. Read more

Establishment of the new Alliance for Transformative Action on Climate and Health

The Alliance for Transformative Action on Climate and Health (ATACH) is a WHO-led mechanism to help deliver the COP26 health commitments by 59 countries on climate-resilient, low carbon health systems. WHO will secretariat the Alliance, and the UK and Egypt will co-convene in the first two years. Learn more

First solar-powered eye surgery in NZ

In New Zealand, Hastings Eye Clinic may have performed the first ever eye surgery conducted fully under solar power! Watch the short video

Closed loop recycling at St Andrew’s War Memorial Hospital

St Andrew’s War Memorial Hospital has become the first hospital in Australia to establish a closed-loop recycling ecosystem, thanks to a partnership with the Resitech Group. Highly motivated staff have already recycled over 7.5 tonnes of plastic in just 9 months! Read more

Education and Events

NSW Health Website – Climate Risk & Net Zero

The NSW Health Climate Risk & Net Zero site is now live and accessible. The website contains practical information and resources to support the transition to a modern, low carbon health system. Read more

New course at Monash – Sustainable Healthcare in Practice

The Monash Sustainable Development Institute is launching a Sustainable Healthcare in Practice course on Monday 15 August. If you want to make a difference and contribute towards positive change, this course will provide you with the knowledge and skills to create sustainable practice for a healthy future. More details

CODA22 Conference

Melbourne on 11-14 Sep 2022

CODA22 is open to all healthcare professionals, including physicians, nurses, allied health practitioners, paramedics, researchers, administrators and students. It fuses three core professional development objectives:

Improving clinical knowledge and skills
Inspiring healthcare advocacy, leadership and action
Igniting professional connections

The conference program has been broadly categorised into four areas – Earth, Cure, Educate and Ethics – and is carefully designed to meet all your CPD/CME requirements. Find program details and register

Research, Resources and Reports

Research

‘It's a constant changing environment, and we're just playing catch up’: Hospital food services, food waste, and COVID-19

Cook N, Goodwin D, Collins J, Porter J. ‘It's a constant changing environment, and we're just playing catch up’: Hospital food services, food waste, and COVID‐19. Nutrition & Dietetics.

This research completed interviews with people working in hospital foodservices in Victoria to understand the impacts of COVID-19 on hospital foodservices, particularly their ability to complete food waste audits and investigate the possible changes in food waste amounts. Data were analysed into 5 themes; impacts on practice, labour, change, technology, post pandemic expectations. Foodservice staff demonstrated adaptability to the changes brought forward by COVID-19 but hospitals were still not able to prioritise food waste audits.

What are the most promising strategies to decrease animal protein and/or increase plant protein uptake in foodservice settings?

Stiles G, Collins J, Beck K. What Are the Most Promising Strategies to Decrease Animal Protein and/or Increase Plant Protein Uptake in Foodservice Settings?. Medical Sciences Forum 2022 (Vol. 9, No. 1, p. 49).

This systematic literature review evaluated the effectiveness of strategies to decrease animal protein and/or increase plant protein in foodservice settings. Menu labelling and re-designing menus, recipes, and service increased uptake of target foods in most studies with the largest consistent changes with menu re-design.

Education for sustainable healthcare: Setting the educational agenda for our future

Remedios, L., & Winkel, K. D. (2022). Editorial, Vol 23.1: Education for sustainable healthcare: Setting the educational agenda for our future. Focus on Health Professional Education: A Multi-Professional Journal, 23(1), i-v.

This editorial discusses the challenges of embedding sustainable healthcare into the educational agenda for health professionals. It calls for interdisciplinary, interprofessional and transdisciplinary professional education.

Resources

5 new guides on sustainable procurement by HCWH

Health Care Without Harm have released 5 new guides developed to help hospitals and health centres support and advance their sustainable procurement programs. They include gloves, surface and instrument disinfection and hand hygiene.

Video: Co-implementing sustainability and quality improvement

Want to learn more about sustainability in quality improvement? Here is an informative video about how to effectively implement sustainability into QI projects.

Podcast: The link between social and environmental health

Interested in learning about the relationship between the environment and social determinants of health? This podcast delves into this topic with experts from Harvard University, Boston Medical Center, Good Food Markets, and Health Care Without Harm.

Reports

Australia State of the Environment report 2021

This State of the Environment report describes how our environment is affecting the health and wellbeing of Australians and is the first to include Indigenous voices. Although a sobering read, the report also highlights where investment and hard work of Australians have made a positive difference.

Thanks for reading!

Share your sustainable healthcare success story

We want to profile stories of environmental initiatives in health (no matter how big or small) to show what is possible and inspire others to improve sustainability in their own workplace. If you have a project you'd like to share with us to include in this newsletter and feature on our social media, let us know about it here or email [email protected]

Join GGHH

If you are interested in signing up your organisation to become a member of the Global Green and Health Hospitals Network, please click here to see more details about the program and how to join, or email [email protected]

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Join CAHA

This newsletter is brought to you by the Climate and Health Alliance, Australia’s peak body on climate and health. CAHA’s mission is to build a powerful health sector movement for climate action. To do this, we run a number of campaigns and programs alongside our sustainable healthcare program, like:

You can follow CAHA on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram.

Both individual health professionals and health organisations can become members of CAHA. If you like what we do, and would like to support our work, please join and become a member. You will be joining a dynamic effort to ensure people's health and well-being is central to national and global efforts to respond to climate change.