The Green Nephrology Programme

Document by Frances Mortimer added 28 May 2009. 0 comments

What will kidney care look like in 10 or 15 years’ time, when carbon rationing is re-shaping the NHS? Will patients still travel three times a week to access dialysis, or cover hundreds of miles to transplant clinic? Will they have greater responsibility for their own care? Will wastewater be flushed down the drain, or carefully conserved for secondary and tertiary use? Will discarded bottles, packaging and dialysis lines still go uncounted?

The Campaign for Greener Healthcare has formed a partnership with the Renal Association, the British Renal Society, NHS Kidney Care, the NHS Sustainable Development Unit, the National Kidney Federation and Baxter Healthcare to improve the sustainability of kidney care through a Green Nephrology Programme.

Green Nephrology Summit

The programme began on 25 February 2009 with the first Green Nephrology Summit – a day of discussion, learning and planning, which explored a new vision for kidney care in the future, and brought together a group of individuals committed to transforming the service for sustainability – including the National Clinical Director for Kidney Care, Donal O’Donoghue. Areas addressed included commissioning and Payment By (sustainable!) Results, teleclinics, home or near-patient treatments, partnership with suppliers, and best practice in reducing waste from around the country.

Specialist Trainee Fellowship

NHS Kidney Care is generously funding a one-year Out of Programme Experience for a Specialist Trainee in renal medicine, who will be seconded to the Campaign for Greener Healthcare and trained in:

  • Modelling of carbon output of healthcare
  • Service redesign
  • Quality improvement in healthcare
  • Leadership and personal development
  • Lean thinking

Anticipated outputs of the fellowship include sustainability input to renal pathways in the Map of Medicine, presentations at relevant national and international meetings, a paper in a peer-reviewed journal on the carbon footprint of kidney care in the UK, and a toolkit for use in renal centres to increase sustainability.

We are delighted to have made a fantastic appointment to the fellowship in Andrew Connor, who is due to take up post in September 09. Andrew is currently working as an SpR in Dorchester, and will keep up a weekly clinical session there during the year. More details here.

Resources

Resources for Green Nephrology are now being collected here on the renal pages of SHEBA. Please help to test the site by logging in to suggest content and post comments.

While SHEBA is being tested, we are also keeping a copy of some resources on http://www.greenerhealthcare.org/nephrology-resources. If you would like to join the green nephrology email list, please follow the instructions there.

Leadership

Leadership shown by the Green Nephrology partners has already been important in raising awareness and generating momentum for improving the sustainability of kidney care. Both the British Renal Society and the Renal Association have adopted sustainability policies, pledging to improve their own environmental impacts. NHS Kidney Care is making sustainability a priority across its programmes, and examining opportunities for integrating it into commissioning of renal services.

Local Action

Local kidney units are encouraged to undertake a sustainability audit and develop a green action plan. NHS Kidney Care plans to kick-start the process with a self-assessment survey of all units in summer 2009, and the British Renal Society plans to lead on collecting case studies of best practice from across the country. These will be made available online, along with further tools developed in partnership with pilot units during the Green Nephrology Fellowship.

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