The face-to-face care debate has become 'too polarised', NHS England's top GP has warned - urging GPs to 'stay close' to patients to avoid a wedge being driven between practices and communities.
GPs can apply learning from the COVID-19 response to help fight the climate emergency and the pandemic offers the chance to ‘build back better’, experts have told the RCGP annual conference.
Aarti Bansal and Grant Blashki: Six steps to both greener and better primary care
December 15, 2020
Most primary care clinicians are well aware that the climate crisis is a health crisis and of the immediate and significant health co-benefits of climate action, such as through reduced air pollution. However, when it comes to taking action, in our experience many clinicians do not make the link with clinical practice. This is perhaps a result of extrapolating from actions to reduce one’s personal carbon footprint in areas like energy, waste, and transport. Yet, the majority of general practice’s carbon footprint results from clinical activity. In this article we focus on clinical practice and outline six practical steps that primary care can take towards sustainable healthcare that align with evidence-informed and person-centred practice.