Eluned Morgan MS, Minister for Health and Social Services
I am pleased to announce the launch of the Greener Primary Care Wales Framework and Award Scheme for a second year.
The Greener Primary Care Framework and Award Scheme supports the four independent primary care contractor services in Wales – community pharmacy, primary care dental, general practice and community optometry – to improve the environmental sustainability of their day-to-day practices and to reach the Welsh Government’s decarbonisation targets.
It provides a collection of clinical and non-clinical actions aimed to support primary care practices change their everyday activities to reduce environmental impact, waste and manage our carbon footprint.
In 2019, both the Welsh Government and the Senedd declared a climate emergency. The Welsh Government’s Net Zero Plan sets out our overarching and legally-binding target to deliver net zero emissions by 2050, alongside the ambition for the public sector in Wales to be collectively net zero by 2030.
The climate change emergency and the health of our population in Wales are inextricably linked. Without action, climate change will impact on the delivery of our health and social care services, harm health and wellbeing and put vulnerable people at further risk, widening inequalities.
The vast majority of contact between people and the NHS happens in primary and community care – these services therefore will play a vital role in tackling climate change and our wider work to decarbonise the public sector.
Since the Greener Primary Care Wales Framework and Award Scheme was launched by Public Health Wales in June 2022, more than 100 primary care practices have registered on the framework and completed a total of 638 climate-friendly actions. Thirty five practices have undertaken sufficient actions to receive either a bronze, silver or gold award.
I am grateful to everyone who has participated in the scheme so far. These actions will make a difference to our future.
I am pleased the scheme is being re-launched for a second year. Public Health Wales will continue to work with strategic stakeholders and frontline clinicians to raise its awareness and ensure as many practices as possible can register and participate.
It is setting up an online community where best practice can be shared. We have funded publicity materials, including a yearbook of decarbonisation activities from the first year of the scheme and a short animation film, which are available on Greener Primary Care Wales.