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Our 3000+ prostate cancer patients visit GPs and community sites to receive blood testing every 3-6 months, which is 16,000 visits a year on average. Each one of these tests builds up carbon emissions from the miles travelled by patients to care sites. We will be trialling the use of at-home finger prick blood tests for patients, to help reduce carbon emissions and create a more convenient experience for patients who are often monitored in this way for the rest of their lives.

The NHS Elective Surgical Hubs provide high-volume low-complexity surgery to patients across England. This project aims to develop a framework for surgical hubs to measure their ‘environmental impact’ across the entire patient journey. The Key Performance Indicators developed can be used as a benchmark quantifying sustainability performance, allowing the impact of subsequent quality improvement projects to be objectively measured. The high-level nature of these metrics will also allow a comparison in sustainability performance between surgical hubs and enable different centres to share good practice.

The Intensive Care Environmental Sustainability Recipe Book will be speciality-specific, evidence-based guidance on reducing the environmental footprint of intensive care units in the UK. This will include practical information for procurement, clinical procedures, waste management and a measurable daily checklist for environmentally sustainable intensive care practice. Statutory requirements and professional standards for healthcare and sustainability in the four nations of the UK will be considered throughout the Recipe Book. The project is a collaboration between the University of Brighton, Intensive Care Society, Faculty of Intensive Care Medicine and UK Critical Care Nursing Alliance.