Planetary Primary Care

BJGP Long Read·Bright Ideas and Innovation·Opinion

General practice in a ‘Fit for the Future’, net zero NHS

The UK’s Government’s Fit for the Future: 10 Year Health Plan for England reaffirms the NHS’s commitment to achieving net zero emissions by 2040. We should explore how the Plan’s key proposals interface with the wider goals of healthcare sustainability and climate

18 August 2025

5 mins read

Arts·BJGP Long Read·Opinion·Undergraduate

The Fall of Icarus: Using art to teach medical students about planetary health

Using art can help students connect a patient's condition to the broader impacts of planetary health ... GPs should encourage students to examine this remarkable situation, even if others decide it is easier to look away.

5 July 2025

3 mins read

BJGP Long Read·Bright Ideas and Innovation

Embedding sustainability in primary care practice: Reflections on the Green Impact for Health Toolkit in City and Hackney

In 2024-25, 29 GP practices in London's City and Hackney were incentivised to engage with greener practice. Mareeni Raymond hopes that readers will see that greener practice is achievable and that good practice can be shared.

4 July 2025

4 mins read

Opinion

Is NICE failing to prioritise environmentally sustainable healthcare?

As the net zero agenda gains prominence within the health sector, NICE guidelines are still not providing clinicians routinely with material to help decision making, argue Emma Radcliffe and Sophie von Heimendahl .

24 February 2025

3 mins read

1

BJGP Long Read·International

How far have family doctor organisations around the world progressed in protecting planetary health?

The theme for World Family Doctor Day on May 19, 2024, was “Healthy Planet, Healthy People”. To mark this, the World Organisation of Family Doctors’ (WONCA) Working Party on Planetary Health surveyed its 133 member organizations (MOs) across 111 countries. Terry Temple and colleagues

9 January 2025

4 mins read

5

BJGP Long Read·Opinion

Reducing medicine wastage – working together to support our NHS, our well-being and our planet

Reducing medicine wastage requires a concerted effort from all stakeholders, and yields returns in terms of finance, well-being and the environment. Vasumathy Sivarajasingam explains.

8 June 2024

3 mins read

1

International·Opinion

Planetary Health – A warning from your future?

This warning is not about climate change. Skip to the last paragraph to get your warning or keep reading to understand why we ignore warnings.

9 August 2023

6 mins read

1

BJGP Long Read·Opinion

The patient Earth is sick, but the medical doctors are mainly absent

So, doctors... are learning to be afraid of uncertainty, ordering ever more tests and prescribing more and more, to try – often in vain – to be sure... But where does that leave Patient Earth?

30 July 2023

12 mins read

Arts·BJGP Long Read·Book review·Opinion

Three novels for planetary health

In the summer before COVID-19 it the UK, I read three works of fiction (one after another) that changed my perspective on the world and our place in it: The Wall, The World according to Anna, and The Ministry for Future

19 July 2023

4 mins read

BJGP Long Read·Bright Ideas and Innovation

Going Greener! The story of our success

Vasumathy Sivarajasingam showcases how GP practices in Ealing (NW London) worked towards ‘greener practice’ and sustainable healthcare.

10 May 2023

4 mins read

1

Opinion

Low carbon inhalers: an opportunity for much wider change

Inhaler prescribing alone accounts for approximately 3% of the NHS’s carbon footprint. Unsurprisingly, this has been targeted by Greener NHS as a priority area. Here, Emma Radcliffe describes a number of success stories of practices reducing their metered dose inhaler (MDI) prescribing,

15 March 2023

4 mins read

Opinion

A small step towards a greener GP practice…

Ayesha Siddiqui has compiled a list of a few basic steps each member of GP practice staff (clinical and non-clinical) can adopt in our day to day working lives towards reducing our carbon foot print.

4 January 2023

2 mins read

1

Bright Ideas and Innovation·Opinion

How to be a triple bottom line (TBL) general practice – working for profit, the people, and the planet

For 30 years advocates1 for social justice and the environment (have called for full cost accounting with a triple bottom line2 where all the consequences of a business are made transparent. These are its social, environmental and economic impacts and outcomes.

1 January 2023

3 mins read

BJGP Long Read·International

Can we take the heat?

With climate change resulting in increasing temperatures all around the world, what exactly does heat do to our cells and vital organs?

1 October 2022

5 mins read

AiT·BJGP Long Read

Planetary health and sustainable primary care: What does this mean for a GP curriculum?

For today's and tomorrow's general practitioners to be able to engage with climate-related health threats in partnership with their patients, medical curricula must shape teaching and learning now. RCGP curriculum lead for planetary health Suchita Shah discusses what this mean for GP

25 August 2022

6 mins read

Opinion

Soil Extinction, Climate Crisis and Population Health

Pallavi Devulapalli reminds us that learning about what is happening to soil and engaging with policymakers to reverse its loss and degradation is of primary importance to all responsible citizens.

14 May 2022

2 mins read

News·Opinion

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and primary care – our final warning

It’s our ‘final warning’; the world is failing to limit the impacts of climate change and primary care can help. Nada Khan highlights resources, aided by our planetary primary care column.

21 April 2022

3 mins read

Opinion

The ‘inverse climate law’: a call for health equity and climate justice

Drs Farah Bede and Emma Radcliffe describe an ‘inverse climate law’, where those at greatest risk of the climate crisis lack resources and are least resilient to it due to pre-existing societal inequality.

20 April 2022

4 mins read

Bright Ideas and Innovation

Building new and faster ways to achieve sustainable healthcare

Terry Kemple and colleagues showcase how they found a way for the NHS and prescribers to know that the medications they used were not harming the environment (includes open access resources).

2 March 2022

3 mins read

Opinion

GPs must talk about climate breakdown

Margaret Jackson and Lesley Morrison argue that GPs should be discussing climate breakdown at every opportunity.

26 February 2022

3 mins read

1

Bright Ideas and Innovation

GP Carbon Calculator: making it easier to support the NHS’ net zero ambitions

The GP Carbon Calculator is a free online resource designed to support GP practices to reduce carbon emissions and tackle climate change. Find out more.

7 February 2022

3 mins read

2

Opinion

The dangers to health when we live in a bubble

We all live in our bubbles. These are where we live our versions of reality and avoid anything that might harm them. Our habitable biosphere on Earth is a bubble. Inside are the smaller bubbles that include our family, beliefs, habits, work,

24 January 2022

3 mins read

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