Sustainability at Mile Oak Medical Centre

Air pollution is in the air that we breathe in, both indoors and outdoors. There are lots of different types of pollution in the air around us and it can be damaging to everyone’s health.

Learn more about air pollution and its effects

Choosing Wisely UK helps improve conversations between patients and their doctors and nurses.

The doctor or nurse will share their knowledge with you and support you to make decisions. Better choices about your care will occur by the clinician listening to what is important to you. This will often help to avoid tests, treatments or procedures that are unlikely to be helpful.

Visit Choosing Wisely website for more information

Mile Oak Medical Centre is making changes to be more sustainable, and we would like to encourage you to be more sustainable too.

Learn more about what you can do

The NHS is the first health service in the world that has pledged to reach Net Zero by 2040. Out of all the emissions from primary care, a whopping 13% of these are just from inhaler medication. If your asthma and/or COPD is well controlled, you will need fewer rescue (blue) inhalers, your health will be improved, and you are less likely to need emergency care.

There are many different types of effective inhalers available, but some have a higher carbon footprint than others. The NHS has asked GP teams to discuss with their patients whether it is possible to switch inhalers to those that use less harmful gases during annual asthma reviews.

This will bring us in line with other countries in the world and it will help the NHS to reduce their carbon footprint. Please do not stop using your inhalers but do ask your practice nurse, GP, or respiratory specialist about this at your next appointment. If you would like to discuss the possibility of making a switch earlier, please contact our reception team to arrange an appropriate appointment.

For more information, please look at the Greener Inhaler website

We at Mile Oak Medical Centre are concerned about, and recognise the importance and urgency of addressing climate change, and the serious risks that climate change poses for present and future generations.

We agree to take the following actions:

• We will tell the truth and acknowledge the climate crisis is a health crisis and an emergency.
• We will act now by taking steps to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to Net Zero as soon as feasible.
• We are stronger together and will work with others; our staff, patients, healthcare colleagues and local communities, to create new solutions.
• We pledge to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions (carbon footprint) caused by our practice and aim for Net Zero within ten years or faster if feasible.
• To achieve the target of Net Zero, we will measure our carbon footprint, identify the hotspots and put plans into action to reduce each of these. We cannot reach Net Zero without each component part reaching zero.
• We will pay attention to the climate footprint of our travel (both staff and patients), energy use, the services we use, and the products we buy and use. We will make low-carbon choices wherever possible. We will treat all the resources we use as valuable and not be wasteful.
• We will be transparent and measure our footprint every 3 years to ensure we are meeting our commitments. The results will be published on our website.
• We will provide leadership through our actions and share our experiences in making cleaner choices with our staff, patients and colleagues and encourage them to sign their pledge too.

Return your used inhalers to a pharmacy to help reduce your carbon footprint

The propellants used in some inhalers are powerful greenhouse gases that contribute to climate change. Even after an inhaler is finished it still contains these environmentally damaging gases.

Return all used inhalers to your local pharmacy for safe disposal

Returned inhalers will be incinerated which will destory the greenhouse gases and prevent inhaler plastics going to landfill.

Don't throw used inhalers into your household waste or recycling bins!

Landfill disposal of inhalers is harmful to the environment due to leftover gases being released into the atmosphere. Plastics from inhalers cannot be recycled using domestic recycling schemes.

Make each puff count!

Only order your inhaler when required to reduce waste.