Key messages
- Videos provide perspectives on sustainability in the healthcare system.
- Western Health assisted in the development of this content.
Sustainability learnings from the NHS forum
On 23 May 2018 Robert Fiske, CEO of the Victorian Health and Human Services Building Authority held a forum with Dr David Pencheon OBE, former Head of the NHS Sustainable Development Unit, Stan Krpan, CEO of Sustainability Victoria and leaders from across the Victorian health system.
The videos are available with closed captions by clicking on the CC icon in the bottom right of the Vimeo viewer.
Introductions and key notes
Mr Stan Krpan , CEO, Sustainability Victorian provides an introduction to the forum, noting that Sustainability Victoria's research that showed 4 in 5 Victorians are concerned about climate change. Even more specific to health is a recent by the NHS Sustainable Development Unit which found that 98 per cent of NHS employees want a greener health system.
Sustainability Learnings from the NHS - Stan Krpan transript
Robert Fiske, CEO of Victorian Health and Human Services Building provides a departmental introduction to Sustainability in Healthcare, noting the scale of the Victorian the health system and the challenge ahead of us. In 2016-17 its carbon emissions and waste was equivalent to the households of Ballarat and Sunbury. It delivered over 10 million episodes of care and every occupied bed-day emitted on average 120 kilograms of carbon, used 600 litres of water and every patient treated generated around 3 kilograms of waste. Mr Fiske reiterated the role of the Building Authority in providing strong leadership and advocacy for sustainability in healthcare, noting since 2005-06 carbon emissions per meter squared have reduced by 12 per cent and water use per meter squared reduced by 42 per cent.
Sustainability Learnings from the NHS - Robert Fiske transcript
Dr David Pencheon (OBE), Former head of the Sustainable Development Unit spoke about his experiences in making the NHS a sustainability leader. He saw law as an important enabler, noted the importance of seeing climate change as a health issue, the need to embed sustainability in existing governance and quality frameworks, integrating adaptation and mitigation and adopting a systems approach. He reminded us that in general executives to not want to break the law (Climate Change Act), the bank (rising health costs), or the contract with the people it serves.
Sustainability Learnings from the NHS - David Pencheon transcript
Sustainability Learnings from the NHS - Panel transcript
Ms Colleen Gates, Board member, Western , discusses three broad areas of sustainability: what we work in (efficient buildings), what we do (sustainable practices) and what we impact (healthy communities). Key messages were don't be wasteful, reduce repeat visits, embed social responsibility in your strategic leadership and culture and make sustainability the natural choice.
Sustainability Learnings from the NHS - Colleen Gates transcript
Dan Douglass, Chief Executive Officer of Heathcote , discusses sustainability as a connection to community and quality of life. As a small rural health service he saw partnerships as essential to build critical mass. As with health programs, sustainability programs need to be evidence based and evaluated.
Sustainability Learnings from the NHS - Dan Douglass transcript
Julia Trimboli, Group Executive Director, Leadership and Mission, Mercy , speaks about Pope Francis's encyclical on ecology, Laudato Si, and how it is driving change across Mercy Health. Their focus is divestment, superannuation, procurement, engaging with their 8,500 staff and governance through an environment committee.
Sustainability Learnings from the NHS - Julia Trimboli transcript
Dan Jefferson, Director, Commissioning, Performance and Regulation, Department of Health and Human discusses opportunities to embed sustainability into performance measures around access, quality, governance and financial sustainability. Potential examples were accessing tests by phone, home based care, packaging of consumables without affecting quality of care, training boards on sustainability and preventative models of care to improve financial sustainability. He raised the concept of care miles and noted the need to engage with corporate, community and clinical stakeholders.
Sustainability Learnings from the NHS - Dan Jefferson transcript
Joe Neill, Director, Procurement and Value Delivery, Health Purchasing talks about the importance of Victoria's social procurement in delivering social, economic and environmental outcomes. Sustainable procurement could also benefit from moving from shorter to longer term planning and contracting, such as Victoria's Renewable Certificate Purchasing Initiative that has used the buying-power of government electricity, including hospitals, to leverage up to $533 million of capital investment and over 280MW of capacity in new wind and solar farms.
Sustainability Learnings from the NHS - Joe Neill transcript
Dr David Pencheon (OBE) discussion with Dr Forbes McGain, Anaesthetist, Western , talks about a range of topics and challenges for increasing sustainability in the health system in Victoria and more broadly.
Sustainability Learnings from the NHS - David Pencheon interview transcript
Reviewed 11 April 2024