The Urban Transport Group has welcomed the launch of the NHS’ campaign ‘For A Greener NHS’ designed to tackle the climate “health emergency”, which it announced this weekend.

The campaign references a range of transport measures to address the climate crisis, including using technology to cut 30 million outpatient appointments and spare patients thousands of unnecessary trips to and from hospital; encouraging more active travel for staff; and encouraging NHS trusts and employees to use electric vehicles.

Jonathan Bray, Director of the Urban Transport Group, said:

“We welcome the launch of the ‘For a greener NHS’ campaign and its recognition of the key role the health sector needs to play in tackling the climate emergency.

“The health and social care sector is responsible for a significant proportion of traffic on our roads. We believe that there is much more that the NHS could do to reduce its carbon footprint on transport, from reform of non-emergency patient transport services to consulting more effectively on decisions on the location of healthcare facilities.

“Progress on these practical measures also needs to form part of a much better strategic dialogue between the NHS and transport authorities and we will shortly be writing to the Chair of the NHS Net Zero Expert Panel and the Director of the NHS Sustainable Development Unit with proposals on how we could take this forward together. Rapid decarbonisation is a complex challenge which will only be achieved by better working across sectors. We stand ready to work with the NHS to bring the health and transport sectors closer together in pursuit of this common goal.”