High carbon consumption in the health sector
First initiatives to reduce carbon emissions and integrate environmental aspects into the health system already exist, such as "Greener NHS". However, as they mainly focus on energy efficiency, waste reduction and transport in hospitals, the related measures alone are not sufficient to achieve the necessary decarbonisation.
Those who want to make future healthcare sustainable should consider new and less carbon-intensive models of care. In this context, hospitals must, for example, consider the outpatient potential of interventions, but also develop strategies on transport (journeys, transfers, parking) and nutrition (health promotion, planetary health diet). Read more about this in the 2020 Standards for Health Promoting Hospitals and Health Services.
Medical services are overused
Another problem is the apparently widespread overuse of medical services: Estimates suggest that up to 30 per cent are wasteful or of low value, while 10 per cent are even considered harmful. Although initiatives are being launched to identify and avoid unnecessary or low-value care, such as with Choosing Wisely (German Society of Internal Medicine 2022; Choosing Wisely 2014), there is still a long way to go to establish an environmentally friendly healthcare system without deteriorating patient care.
Integrated care offers opportunities
One of the goals of integrated care models is to reduce unnecessary and burdensome treatments for patients. We are currently developing methods to measure the Co2 impact of care pathways. Our goal is not only to improve quality and efficiency through new care models, but also to reduce CO2 emissions in the healthcare system.