The Green Healthcare Hub, led by Professor Mahmood Bhutta, is a transdisciplinary hub formed to decarbonise the commissioning and delivery of healthcare. BSMS were recently awarded £5.9m from the NIHR and MRC to lead this hub (£42m funding to ensure health is central to net zero strategies – UKRI).

In the commissioning of care there is an opportunity to incentivise carbon frugal approaches to the way care is delivered and the way that healthcare goods are purchased and used. We will focus on digital technologies to deliver remote and streamlined pathways, policy mechanisms (related to infections risk, economic servitization and material science) to maximise a reuse economy for medical goods. 

In the delivery of care, we will support healthcare professionals to identify and develop carbon frugal approaches by providing methods and tools such as stakeholder identification, co-development, evidence gatherings and measurement of modelling of carbon, financial and health benefits. 

The themes aim to address the complexities and inter-dependencies in the way healthcare systems are currently commissioned and delivered. They will explore policy as a mechanism to enable and drive system change, which aligns with a socio-political approach to decarbonization.