The NHS has a significant carbon footprint, producing 4-5% of the UK’s greenhouse gas emissions and NHS England is committed to reaching net zero carbon emissions by 2045.

Developing environmentally sustainable models of clinical care is one of the key priorities to help achieve this ambition, ensuring the health of patients is improved both now and for generations to come. The GIRFT programme is ideally placed to design sustainable models of care given its national reach and clinically led approach to identifying and supporting best practices.

GIRFT is therefore working in collaboration with Greener NHS to develop greener pathways in areas where there is the most potential for the NHS to improve or maintain the quality of patient care while mitigating its environmental impact, delivering cost savings and efficiencies and maintaining or improving the quality of care for patients.

These pathways are developed using the cross-specialty, clinically led GIRFT Environmental Lessons Learned and Applied (ELLA) methodology, which uses the clinical pathway as its starting point.

GIRFT’s first ‘greener’ pathway guide outlined practical steps trusts can take to decarbonise the bladder cancer pathway. We are now extending the methodology to produce more guidance for hip and knee arthritis, urinary tract stones and surgical dermatology, with more to follow.

The work is part funded though the NIHR/UKRI One Health System net zero healthcare hub based at the University of Exeter. Through this national, multi-partner collaboration, GIRFT has access to a range of clinical and academic leaders in environmental sustainability, allowing us to consider co-benefits for patients and systems and risks and opportunities for healthcare delivery within the wider context of a net zero NHS.