PrescQIPP are an NHS funded not-for-profit organisation that supports quality, optimised prescribing for patients. They produce evidence-based resources and tools for primary care commissioners and provide a platform to share innovation across the NHS. They do this via bulletins and briefings, data, webkits, and webinars.
The opportunity
Despite having a number of specific resources on the carbon impact of inhalers, PrescQIPP recognised that NHS organisations would benefit from broader training on reducing carbon emissions across the healthcare sector including travel, infrastructure, supply chains, medicines, and patient behaviour.
What we delivered
Starting in September 2023, and running over a 6-month period, Lighthouse delivered a series of monthly ‘Lunch and Learn’ 1-hour webinars covering 6 key topics, beginning with broader climate change knowledge and progressing toward actionable strategies.
The topics were:
- Climate Science
- Impacts of Climate Change
- Climate Change- What are we doing about it?
- Carbon Footprinting- personal and company
- Circular Economy and Waste
- Taking Action
The webinars utilised resources and case studies from a wide range of sources such as Greener NHS, World Health Organization (WHO), The Lancet, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) as well as PrescQIPP’s own resources on inhalers and anaesthetics.
The outcome
With nearly 200 people registering for the webinar series, interest in the topic was clearly high. The webinar series equipped attendees with strategies for carbon action in both their professional and personal lives, and a holistic understanding of the climate crisis.
Attendees submitted pledges to demonstrate their commitment to take climate action. A few great examples include:
“I plan to take steps to reduce my personal carbon footprint. I’ll start with cycling to work and car sharing. I shall also add carbon awareness to the agenda of GP practice meetings this year and discuss more than just inhalers.”
“I am leading a project at the GP practice where I work. I have declared a climate emergency. I am completing the Green Impact for health toolkit. I plan to deliver my findings locally at PCN and also at the West Yorkshire Training Conference for Nurses on July.”
“[I pledge to] reduce medication wastage by conducting medicines optimisation, [and] limit supply of patient’s routine medicines on discharge.”
Establishing a shared climate language and level of understanding is essential for moving forward with carbon reduction efforts, and this webinar series serves as a crucial step in that direction.
Sajida Khatri, Director of Medicines Optimisation, PrescQIPP:
“Emma and her team were very knowledgeable, and the training sessions were both informative and engaging. The service provided was very good value for money as the team at Lighthouse led on the content production and needed very little additional input to create the fabulous webinars. Attendees found the webinars useful, and we have had some great feedback. We would definitely recommend Lighthouse to others looking to upskill on carbon awareness as they are a very knowledgeable team and deliver the training in a clear and engaging manner.”
Emma Burlow, Founder, Lighthouse Sustainability:
“The Lunch and Learn sessions for PrescQIPP are an ideal way to deliver content to a larger audience in bitesize sessions. There is already a lot of information out there around carbon reduction in the NHS, but staff are time-poor and need some direction to help get started with their own action plans. We pulled lots of resources together, to give attendees maximum value in shortest amount of time. It was a pleasure working with PrescQIPP, a respected source of information for this key sector.”
If a series of ‘Lunch and Learn’ webinars could help your business, please get in touch!