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.
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.
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?
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
Vasumathy Sivarajasingam showcases how GP practices in Ealing (NW London) worked towards ‘greener practice’ and sustainable healthcare.
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,
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.
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.
With climate change resulting in increasing temperatures all around the world, what exactly does heat do to our cells and vital organs?
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
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.
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.
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.
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).
Margaret Jackson and Lesley Morrison argue that GPs should be discussing climate breakdown at every opportunity.
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.
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,