Positively Green

Every year, the Sustainability team collects transport data so we can report on how our staff, patient and visitors are travelling to the hospital. There are four surveys which work together to provide the Trust with a comprehensive understanding of how people are currently getting to the hospital and what initiatives would encourage them to make more sustainable choices The first three of these surveys demonstrate how staff are getting to work, and the results for 2024 are in!

Since the 1970s, the UK has lost an estimated 97% of its flower-rich meadows , the once thriving habitats that provided essential food sources for pollinators such as bees and butterflies. In response, initiatives like No Mow May, launched by PlantLife in 2019, have helped raise awareness of the benefits of letting nature take its course .  

UHP have recognised how medical staff with braided/afro hair who work in operating theatres often find it difficult to fit their natural hair into the disposable caps. In response, UHP has started supplying reusable theatre caps that accommodate for braided/afro hair. 

University Hospitals Plymouth NHS Trust has been awarded £1.2 million towards energy efficiency projects and renewable energy following a successful bid put in by the Sustainability team. This achievement is great news for our Net Zero goals and will help us to save money and carbon emissions. 

Since implementing theequipment/furniture/resource reuse and management system Warp It back in November 2023, UHP has achieved so much in the name of reusing and conserving resources.

Since the publication of our Green Travel Plan, we have been working hard to promote the benefits of travelling sustainably to our hospital; we’re hopeful that this blog will point staff and patients in the right direction for information about travelling to UHP via active transport.

UHP's Surgery Care Group is leading the way in embedding sustainable practices into their models of care. Several Green Theatre Projects have started across the Trust, all championed by the Deputy Care Group for Surgery. 

Natalie, one of UHP’s Consultant Anaesthetists and Sustainability Lead for Theatres, has been working alongside the Sustainability team, Irene and JP from the Plastic Theatres team and others to reduce the impact that theatres 14 and 15 have on the environment. 

The South West Imaging Training Academy (formally the Peninsula Radiology Academy ) staff are just one of UHP’s teams completing actions to make their department more sustainable. Since the sustainability group was founded in 2022, they have taken on a number of projects whilst striving for green results.

Various teams across the Trust have changed their processes in order to reduce their paper use. From digitising treatment escalation forms to exploring the digital alternatives to paper-heavy training booklets in Pharmacy, UHP is striving for a paper-free future.