Is it an emergency?The climate crisis has been described by the Lancet medical journey as the biggest threat to healthcare in the 21st century. Within the ICB and alongside our partners we are determined to tackle this threat head on.
We know that a healthy planet can mean healthy people. It’s predicted that around 150,000 UK lives could be saved every year* if we all pulled together to meet the country’s climate change targets.
Read more about how the health and care system across Suffolk and north east Essex has come together in the quest to work more sustainably.
Our Green Plan
‘Healthier Planet Healthier People’ is the title of our Green Plan. The plan is a carbon and health literacy tool that also outlines our strategy. Read the plan to understand how sustainability, health and carbon issues link together and get a snapshot of the key themes, from sustainable models of care to air pollution.
Sustainable working in the ICB
We have a vision to improve the health and wellbeing of the communities that we serve. We recognise that our actions as an ICB have a direct impact on issues such as climate change, and in turn poverty and inequality. This includes choices around the goods and services that we buy and how we shape and commission services.
Here are some examples of how we’re driving positive change.
Our Medicines Management team are working with our patients and providers to help them make sustainable choices about their healthcare.
This includes swapping high-carbon use inhalers to lower carbon alternatives and championing the re-use of equipment to help eliminate single-use plastics.
Did you know, the use of certain inhalers to relieve asthma can produce the same amount of CO2 as driving 170 miles from Sheffield to London? Whereas using a low carbon inhaler instead would produce the same amount of CO2 as driving just 4 miles.
When we decide which organisations should receive contracts to provide various health or care services, we use set marking criteria to judge which organisation would do the best job.
From April 2022, at least 10% of the marking criteria weighting will be based on the social value that the organisations could potentially provide. This includes how well the organisations will:
- provide community support for COVID-19 recovery
- tackle economic inequality
- fight climate change
- provide equal opportunities
- improve health and wellbeing
- promote community integration
Our Estates teams are committed to working sustainably. From sourcing renewable energy and making our buildings more carbon-efficient to employing local firms to boost the economy. We are also providing more digital suites within primary care settings, enabling patients to connect with clinicians based further afield without having to travel.
We’re also utilising technology within the ICB to enable remote meetings, reducing travel-related carbon emissions.
By our people we mean everybody. Our staff, our partners staff, our wider communities and the population we serve.
We’re planning training and development opportunities for our ICB workforce, helping them to understand the links between climate change, health and wellbeing. This increased awareness will help us all to plan health and care services that will drive improved health and environmental outcomes.
Our communities have a critical role to play too, in understanding and embracing new models of care such as uptake of digital appointments, reducing the travel impacts of appointments, reducing medicines waste and positively influencing family and friends.
By working more closely with our communities we can build on the successes of projects such as the development of social prescribing hubs at Kennedy Way Medical Centre in Clacton and The Unity Centre in Whitton, Ipswich. These facilities provide safe, green spaces that support our communities look after their mental health, stay physically active and grow locally produced, sustainable food.
The Kennedy Way Community Garden
The Kennedy Way Community Garden
Transcript of The Kennedy Way Community Garden video
Speaking is Lisa Andrews, Deputy CEO, Community Voluntary Services Tendring.
Hi, and welcome to the Kennedy Way Community Garden. W e have had our grand opening today so the community garden is open to the public and what we’re gonna do we’re gonna just show you around show you a few of the things here and let you know what we’re going to be doing here in the garden over the coming months and hopefully years.
We’ve got a fabulous group of volunteers; a social prescribing link worker, volunteer coordinator who’ve helped make this happen. We’ve got some fabulous raised beds where our local community are able to plant fruit and veg and flowers, grow things, and just improve their health and well-being. We know how great the value of being outside is and the difference that it can make to people’s health and well-being so we’ve created this fabulous space that allows people to get outside, be active, make new friends and join their local community.
So here we’ve got our brand new polytunnel which is where we’re going to be able to do seedlings and plant things and grow things and obviously when the weather isn’t too great we’re going to be able to be inside in the warm and the dry. So we’ve got some lovely seating areas here where people can come – the staff can obviously from the Kennedy Way Medical Centre can enjoy their lunch here or sit out here but also the community can come have a natter with their friends after they’ve done a bit of planting, have a cup of tea. Just a place to sit and enjoy the outside.
Here we are outside our men’s shed it’s a little bit noisy there’s all sorts of activity going on in here and if you come inside I’ll show you around let you know what we’re going to be doing inside. So this is the men’s shed, you can see we’ve got some lovely little bird boxes here that have been made we’re going to decorate them and pop them up on the trees out in the garden and this is a space where we can – men can actually work side-by-side and build things, make things, create things teach other men how to make things and create things and it’s just a really great place to be. If you come up to the other end you’ll be able to see it’s got obviously it’s got electricity and it’s got a microwave and a sink unit so people can also have a cup of tea.
We’ve got one of our volunteers here also who hopefully doesn’t mind being on film and uh just closing it up for the night because we’re all done for the day but it’s a really great space that people can enjoy throughout the year in the dry in the warm and make new friends get to know each other and try something new.
The impact of our work
Through our actions, partnerships, engagement and behaviours our green action plan will:
- Reduce air pollution.
- Tackle and reduce poverty & health inequality.
- Deliver NHS long term plan (value for money, staff development, embracing digital & doing things differently).
- Provide leadership through actions, partnerships, engagement and transparency.
- Reduce the impact of climate change on population health by driving change that saves lives.