{"id":504,"date":"2026-02-05T12:40:38","date_gmt":"2026-02-05T12:40:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/surgerywebtemp.org.uk\/a83011\/?page_id=504"},"modified":"2026-02-12T12:20:52","modified_gmt":"2026-02-12T12:20:52","slug":"practice-statement-to-support-being-a-greener-practice-with-regards-to-medications","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/surgerywebtemp.org.uk\/a83011\/practice-statement-to-support-being-a-greener-practice-with-regards-to-medications\/","title":{"rendered":"Practice Statement to Support being a Greener Practice with regards to Medications"},"content":{"rendered":"

Between 65 \u2013 90% of a practice\u2019s carbon footprint is due to the medications that we prescribe. In addition, there are issues around the disposal of medicines and their packaging.\u00a0Medicines are a vital part of providing good healthcare and we are not advocating stopping prescribing altogether.\u00a0 However, there is more we can do to review what, why, when and how we prescribe.<\/p>\n

The practice plans to help reduce its carbon footprint with regards to medication by;<\/strong><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Reducing over-prescribing and de-prescribing where appropriate. This also has the benefit of reducing the risks of medication burden or problematic polypharmacy.<\/li>\n
  2. Improving awareness of lower-carbon alternatives.<\/li>\n
  3. Improving awareness of how to dispose of medications safely.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    The practice plans to do this through;<\/strong><\/p>\n

      \n
    1. Education of the whole practice team.<\/li>\n
    2. Structured Medication Reviews and Medicines Optimisation; ensuring that medications are indicated, safe and desired by the patient and that greener alternatives are considered where appropriate. NB: Having the best control of a patient\u2019s disease using medication and other treatments will always be more environmentally friendly (and carbon-efficient) than having a patient with a poorly controlled disease, who may eventually require more intensive treatments, investigations, hospital admissions, follow up, etc.<\/li>\n
    3. Utilisation of tools such as AnalyseRx or Open Prescribing to identify medications that could be switched, stopped, started or reviewed.<\/li>\n
    4. Use of IT solutions such as Protocols and AccuRx to make it easier for clinicians and patients to make green choices.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      The practice will work collaboratively with both patients and the ICB to try to facilitate these aims.<\/p>\n

      Useful links:<\/strong><\/p>\n

      \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/svg>\n\t\t\t\thttps:\/\/www.nice.org.uk\/guidance\/ng80\/resources\/inhalers-for-asthma-patient-decision-aid-pdf-6727144573<\/span>\n\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/svg>\n\t\t\t\tHome - PenCycle (pen-cycle.co.uk)<\/span>\n\t\t\t<\/a>\n\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/svg>\n\t\t\t\tNHS England - Structured medication reviews and medicine optimisation<\/span>\n\t\t\t<\/a>\n\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/svg>\n\t\t\t\tICB-green-plan-main-document-final.pdf (northeastnorthcumbria.nhs.uk)<\/span>\n\t\t\t<\/a>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      Between 65 \u2013 90% of a practice\u2019s carbon footprint is due to the medications that we prescribe. In addition, there are issues around the disposal…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-504","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/surgerywebtemp.org.uk\/a83011\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/504","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/surgerywebtemp.org.uk\/a83011\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/surgerywebtemp.org.uk\/a83011\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/surgerywebtemp.org.uk\/a83011\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/surgerywebtemp.org.uk\/a83011\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=504"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/surgerywebtemp.org.uk\/a83011\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/504\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/surgerywebtemp.org.uk\/a83011\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=504"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}