A Scottish Parliamentary reception was held at Holyrood this week to raise awareness and highlight the vital importance of environmental sustainability in healthcare. The event was jointly hosted by Royal Pharmaceutical Society and Royal College of GPs in Scotland and sponsored by Gillian Mackay MSP.
The reception brought together professional leadership body representatives for prescribers across Scotland, Scottish Government, politicians, academics and clinicians. The event highlighted that medicines account for around 25% of carbon emissions across the NHS, and the various innovative ways that these carbon emissions can be reduced. If the NHS in Scotland is to meet its ambition to achieve net zero, implementing effective environmentally sustainable approaches to healthcare will be essential.
Last year, over ten professional leadership bodies across Scotland committed to taking bold action on climate change, by signing up to a Joint Statement on Sustainable Prescribing. One of these actions commits all signers to ‘educating and influencing policy makers about how to make medicines use more environmentally sustainable’, and this week’s event was the first in a series of events to achieve our collective ambitions on influencing.
Sponsor of the event, Gillian Mackay MSP, Scottish Greens’ spokesperson for Health and Social Care said:
“It was a huge pleasure to be able to host this really positive event on behalf of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society and Royal College of GPs in Scotland this evening.
The climate emergency demands a response from everyone wherever they live and in whatever sector they work. It is fantastic to witness a dedicated group of healthcare professionals working collaboratively to help the NHS to meet net zero, in a patient centred way.
I look forward to continuing to work with Royal Pharmaceutical Society and Royal College of GPs in Scotland to ensure that healthcare in Scotland is as environmentally sustainable as possible.”
Speaking about the reception, Laura Wilson, Director for Scotland at RPS, said:
“It was fantastic to bring together pharmacists, parliamentarians and partners from across Government and healthcare to highlight the huge opportunity which exists in healthcare to make our systems and processes more environmentally sustainable.
It was great to be able to discuss a wide range of potential initiatives which will be hugely beneficial for the planet and also efficiency, including introducing electronic prescribing, making information on the environmental impact of medicines readily available and developing an infrastructure for green social prescribing across Scotland.
I look forward to continuing to work with all the partners who were at the Parliamentary reception to make this a reality.”