A digital self-assessment tool designed to help hospital pharmacy teams take practical action to support sustainability and reduce the environmental impact of pharmacy services, pharmaceutical care and medicines, while supporting patient care, has been launched by the Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS).
The long-awaited RPS Greener Pharmacy Guide and Toolkit provides prompts to introduce more sustainable practices to reduce emissions, improve patient care, prevent ill health, tackle medicines waste and achieve efficiency savings, the RPS said.
Published alongside a version for community pharmacies, the two Greener Pharmacy Guides and Toolkits were developed through multi-stakeholder collaboration and a 2023 consultation, which invited pharmacists to share feedback to ensure they were ‘current, clear, relevant and fit for purpose’.
The resulting resources, including simplified checklists, outline three levels of accreditation – bronze, silver, and gold – based on various actions that pharmacy teams can voluntarily take to make their pharmacies more sustainable.
Commenting on the publication, Minna Eii, RPS lead on the Greener Pharmacy Toolkit, acute medicine advanced pharmacist practitioner and co-founder of Pharmacy Declares said: ‘This pioneering resource is the first-ever toolkit to help pharmacy teams reduce their carbon footprint and a real step forward in using technology to improve practice and patient care.
‘It’s backed by a wealth of expertise and the stages of accreditation make it the ideal starting point for those who want to reduce their environmental impacts but don’t know where to start, as well as driving improvements for teams already on that journey.’
Actions for greener pharmacy practice
Upon signing up, pharmacists and their teams answer a series of questions about their practice. They will then be presented with actions to make their practice more sustainable, along with guidance, suggestions and challenges, which can be recorded to measure their progress.
These actions sit under six domains focusing on people; clinical practice; operations and strategy; resource use including energy and water, procurement and supply chain, and waste and recycling; information and communications technology; and travel.
Each action will list the environmental benefits and other co-benefits of completing the actions and empower pharmacy staff to decarbonise their pharmacy settings.
Laura Stevenson, associate chief pharmacist and medicines sustainability lead at King’s College Hospital, London said: ‘At King’s we are delighted there is now a dedicated Greener Pharmacy Toolkit for hospital pharmacy.
‘We can now engage our pharmacy teams with clear, practical guidance on sustainability; the toolkit supports teams in making informed decisions that promote a greener, more responsible pharmacy service.
‘It will now be easier for pharmacy teams to play their role to combat climate change and we’ll be exploring how this can support our environmental sustainability efforts and make a real difference in our hospital’s journey to net zero. Together we can make pharmacy greener and more resilient for the future.’
Sustainability commitments
This work was commissioned by NHS England and supported by Greener NHS. It is free and open access for hospital pharmacy teams throughout England, but can be adapted for use in other countries.
In February, the General Pharmaceutical Council announced that guidance for the education and training of pharmacists and pharmacist independent prescribers has been updated to reflect commitments to sustainability.
Last year, Great Western Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust received recognition from NHS England as an exemplar site for sustainability in infection prevention and control.
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