Policy Connect’s Health and Sustainability teams recently hosted a landmark summit on sustainability policy and practices in the healthcare sector in Parliament.  

The administration of healthcare already entails significant resource consumption and waste. Amidst spiralling demand, the NHS has increasingly been challenged to both maintain quality of care and manage the footprint and cost of care.   

With the Government beginning to formulate its new 10-year healthcare strategy, the summit was a timely opportunity to highlight the value of resource efficiency and sustainability for healthcare and align on how the 10-year strategy can ensure the long-term sustainability of the health system.  

Chaired by Baroness Margaret Ritchie, the forum featured presentations from: 

• Professor Alistair McGuire, LSE & The Partnership for Health System Sustainability and Resilience.  
• Heidi Barnard, Head of Sustainability, NHS Supply Chain. 
• Dr Karen Mayor, Design for Life programme lead, Department of Health and Social Care. 

Joined by parliamentarians, government policymakers, and fellow experts from the health and sustainability sectors, our speakers opened the session by exploring the following themes: 

• Governance: Sustainability commitments, progress, and problems. 
• Current practices and challenges in resource-efficient health procurement, decision-making, and delivery.  
• Sustainable footprint: managing emissions and waste.  
• Fostering coordinated action: Embedding resource efficiency and sustainability in long-term planning.  

After three excellent presentations that underscored the significant resource consumption, waste, and deleterious social and environmental impact associated with the UK’s health system, participants conducted a rich discussion as to how the Department of Health and Social Care can prioritise resource efficiency and sustainability.  

Examining the themes that should underpin the new 10-year healthcare strategy, participants highlighted the importance of a pan-sector approach, a coherent approach across ICSs, support for practitioners and trusts, and the development of an evidence base of resource use, waste, and effective sustainable interventions. 

The summit and its findings will serve as the basis for a forthcoming Sustainability in Healthcare inquiry to be run by Policy Connect in 2025. It will cover the following areas: 

• Efficient care: Pathways, procurement and prescribing 
• Circular health economy: Reduction, reuse and recycling 
• Sustainable footprint: Managing pollution and waste 

For more information about the Sustainability in Health Summit and forthcoming inquiry, please contact Gaelan Komen (gaelan.komen [at] policyconnect.org.uk (gaelan[dot]komen[at]policyconnect[dot]org[dot]uk)).