Sustainability in Critical Care
The extreme weather events in the world demonstrate that climate change may increasingly impact on hospitals and intensive care departments. Tackling climate change and biodiversity loss requires urgent, immediate action.
Health care is a significant contributor to global pollution and so part of the solution, and this work must happen at all levels in all aspects of Healthcare and especially in Critical Care.
Climate change has been recognised as the most profound long term threat to the health of the world. The challenge ahead is to both reduce carbon and improve the health of our population. This involves both reducing activities and reducing carbon intensity. Critical care for our critically ill patients is by its very nature intensive, in both energy and care. Critical care units too have a role to play in helping this change take place by finding leaner working practices, using lower-carbon alternative products, and making the infrastructure and processes sustainable.
Critical Care units now need to make sustainability part of the domains of providing safe quality care. Critical care staff should be aware to undertake sustainability actions to “do less” only where this is evidence-based and good practice and without disadvantaging or harming individual patients.
Sustainability within CMCCN
Within CMCCN we promote green, sustainability initiatives and many of our units are undertaking Green Projects such as gloves off.
Examples of Sustainability Projects within CMCCN to view the projects please click on the links below :
Liverpool Heart and Chest Hospital Gloves off project
Sustainability, Practice and Innovation in ICU Network (SPiN- CM)
Spin CM is a network connecting all our critical care units within CMCCN tto enable enviromental governance to become a core practice across CMCCN by
- Connecting Healthcare Professionals across our organisations who will champion sustainability within practice.
- Supporting Sustainability Education and Research
- Sharing Best practice, empowering change to casade across CMCCN organisations.
- The co-chairs for CM-SPiN are Dr Sam Clark - Critical Care Consultant Mid Cheshire NHS Trust and Darius Zeiali, Speciality Trainee in Intensive Care Medicine. For further information contact spin@mersey.icu
National , International and Regional Sustainability and sustainability resources in Critical Care resources
There are many sustainability in critical care resources that have been developed.
Intensive Care Society
The Intensive Care Society (ICS) have a webpage dedicated to their work on Sustainability in Critical Care which includes many resources for critical care units to use.
To access this webpage please click here
Austraiian and New Zealand Intensive Care Society
Austrialian and New Zealand Intensive Care Society (ANZICS) have produced a Begiinners Guide to Sustainability in the ICU in 2023.
To access this document please click here
GREEN -ICU
GREEN-ICU is a multi-disciplinary initiative aiming to develop evidence-based guidance for reducing the environmental footprint of intensive care practice.
To view the GREEN-ICU website please click here
Greener NHS
NHSE sustainability website called Greener NHS holds a host of resources on sustainability.
To access the website please click here
NHS Cheshire and Merseyside
NHS Cheshire and Mersey also have a sustainability website.
To access this please click here
Coming Soon ! - The Intensive Care Environmental Sustainability Recipe Book.
The Intensive Care Environmental Sustainabilty Recipe Book project is a collaboration between the Intensive Care Society, Faculty of Intensive Care Medicine, UK Critical Care Nursing Alliance and university of Brighton to develop guidance for how critical care units in the UK can reduce thier carbon footprint.
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To access this document please click here
