The NHS Welsh Sustainability Awards: Celebrating Regional Success
With net zero high on the NHS’s agenda, regional efforts to bring sustainability to the forefront are picking up pace. In Wales, a hunger to acknowledge the success to date in this arena has brought about the NHS Welsh Sustainability Conference & Awards.
Behind the event, which aims to highlight progress throughout Wales, and ultimately responsible for its organisation and success were Sarah Thorne, Senior One Health Practitioner from Hywel Dda University Health Board, and Hayley Beharrell, Sustainability Planning Manager in Swansea Bay University Health Board.
The pair initially applied for funding in 2022 through the Welsh Government’s Health & Social Care Climate Emergency National Programme to be the first NHS organisations in Wales to undertake the ‘Green Teams Competition’; a 10-week facilitated programme of sustainable quality improvement projects, run by the Centre for Sustainable Healthcare.
The programme culminated in the completion of several successful projects that reduced emissions, saved costs, and improved patient care, and were subsequently judged by a panel of experts.
Sarah said: “We were keen at this point to celebrate and showcase everyone’s hard work and achievements, so we worked with external industry partners with a strong sustainability focus, and held an awards evening in the Waterfront Museum in Swansea Bay.”
“This event was attended by around 120 guests from across the NHS in Wales, and was supported by colleagues in Welsh Government, that included the Health Minister and the Chief Nursing Officer for Wales.
“Networking and connections that were made at that event are still going strong, proving the benefits of getting like-minded people together to drive through positive changes.
“From here, we were keen to scale up this regional event and take what we had learned from this process to all of our colleagues across the NHS in Wales, so we created the first ever ‘NHS Sustainability Conference & Awards’.”
The will to continue emphasising progress formed the basis of the event
The pair ultimately felt it was important to continue highlighting the sustainable practices being embedded across Wales, and celebrate the driven and passionate staff that are unlocking success and further progress.
“We wanted to recognise and thank staff for this work, whilst collating projects in the hope of identifying ones that can be spread and scaled across Wales,” said Hayley.
“Overwhelmingly, the comments from participants is that bringing sustainability into their role can be really empowering as it allows them to close the value-action gap and address a lot of ‘wastes’ within the system.”
“Ultimately, we will only make a positive impact by making sustainable healthcare ‘business as usual’ within the NHS in Wales.”
“We have approached this by firstly making sustainability visible, accessible and integrated. Our first national event focussed on raising awareness, to provide a baseline of knowledge that we can build on in the future.
“From this platform, we want to provide more area specific focus and problem solving fora, leading to a more highly skilled, satisfied workforce, where the permission to act in the best interest of patient, planet and health is part of our core function.”
To learn more about the NHS Welsh Sustainability Awards, read about the winners in the Health Industry Leaders eMagazine here.
