Sustainability is a serious issue and as such we wish to do our part as a PCN to take care of the environment.
So far, we as a PCN have distributed re-usable water bottles amongst our staff members and provided them with fleeces and hot water boilers to reduce the need for electricity and heating in our practices. Along with the sustainability section of our website advising patients on what they can do to help, these efforts have earned us the Green Impact Bronze award in 2023.
This year we intend to earn the silver award. We are interested in replacing the lights and taps in patient areas with new power saving sensor activated ones. We are also investigating the possibilities of solar energy for our practices, and we highly recommend our clinicians make use of none-medicine based therapies such as our Primary Care Dietician and our Health and Wellbeing Coaches.
To help our efforts progress we are encouraging our clinicians to undertake some or all of the methods below:
- Prescribe dry inhalers – These are much better for the environment than traditional inhalers.
- Encourage patients to recycle their inhalers and blister packs – instructions and recommendations on how to do this can be found in the sustainability section of our website.
- Reduce the number of unnecessary letters sent out of practice – this can be done by utilising services such as AccuRx to contact patients. You could also have patients come into the surgery to collect blood forms rather than wasting the extra paper in envelopes to post them out.
Help us protect the environment and earn the silver award for 2024.
