Health chiefs join climate fight
Health bosses have drawn up plans to back their fight against climate change in response to Scottish Government targets to clean up the planet.
A Climate Emergency and Sustainability Report was prepared for the recent NHS Ayrshire & Arran board meeting.
The health board’s greenhouse gases have gone down from 32,234 tonnes to 30,146.4 tonnes - a fall of 3.7 per cent.
The risks the health board have identified from their Climate Change Assessment are: overheating in wards and clinical areas, causing flooding risks to their properties and service disruption.
Also patients in the community are at risk of adverse events and they must work out how to get to them in times of climate events.
Currently work is ongoing to identify what actions they can take to mitigate against climate change. The plan will be reviewed and monitored through the CESOG group (Climate Emergency and Sustainability Operational Group) and will be taken to the board’s Resilience Group for further review.
The board aim to use renewable heat sources for all the buildings owned by NHS Ayrshire & Arran by 2038.
NHS Ayrshire & Arran has 142 buildings, including acute hospitals, long term community care hospitals, health centres, and clinics. In 2022-23, 15,675 tonnes of CO2 equivalent were produced by the board.
Use of energy for buildings fell by 11.8 per cent from the previous year. Some 25 per cent of the board’s total energy has been generated from renewables this year.
Last year, to reduce emissions, hospital chiefs used LED lighting projects across various NHS sites, boiler replacements, creation of Electric Vehicle charging points and the introduction of 100 electric vehicles.
This year there will be further LED lighting installations, water leak repair work and the introduction of another 100 electric vehicles.