St George Hospital Renal Team win sustainability funding
Healthcare contributes to seven per cent of the total carbon emissions produced annually in Australia. NSW Health has a goal to reduce emissions by 50 per cent by 2030 and to net zero by 2050.
With this goal in mind, the Renal Team at St George Hospital applied for the NSW Ministry of Health Net Zero Hubs program funding and were successful. The NSW Health Net Zero Hubs (2024-2027) is an Australian-first program establishing multi-disciplinary teams to lead decarbonisation activities in carbon hotspot areas.
The funding has allowed the establishment a Kidney Net Zero Hub at St George Hospital that is a whole of kidney health model creating a roadmap to green chronic kidney care for patients from diagnosis until end-of-life care. This will incorporate all their points of contact, including outpatient settings and inpatient encounters.
The team plan to target the hotspots of high carbon footprint within their services, starting with an evaluation of current services for environmental impact, to better target interventions.
“The Net Zero Hub funding will allow us to focus our attention on the practices that create most CO2 and waste and implement strategies to reduce these – including reducing patient transport to and from the hospital, reducing packaging, and recycling plastic wastes”, explains A/Professor George Mangos, Head of the Department of Renal Medicine.
“We have reduced pathology ordering substantially by targeting unnecessary testing and waste. This has reduced CO2 and cost. We are currently recycling clean, discarded water for use in utilities around the hospital, saving up to one million litres of water per year. "
Funding will go towards a lead dialysis nurse (Helen Veros) to drive the program; and nephrologist Dr Alexandra Gallagher will be the medical lead in the Net Zero Hub.
“Our department’s plan is to measure what we are doing now, implement strategies to reduce CO2 and waste, measure the outcomes and then develop effective net zero programs that are scalable across the hospital and other renal units in Australia. In this way we will be doing our bit to transition towards a high-quality, low-carbon and climate resilient health system.” said A/Professor Mangos.
