Staff at Dorset’s NHS sites in Dorchester and Poole joined in with a day of activities as part of NHS Sustainability Day.

The day is a nationwide initiative aimed at encouraging both NHS staff and the public to think about how they can make changes to work smarter, be greener, and potentially save themselves and the NHS money.

Sally Childs is a Unison Green Rep at the Dorchester headquarters of Dorset Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) and organised a day of learning and awareness raising for staff at the building.

Sally said:

Staff at the CCG were asked to leave their car at home and travel to work in a more environmentally friendly way.  A number of staff used the train and bus, and one member of staff ran from work to home on the day! 

We had unionlearn's Keith Hatch talking to staff around learning opportunities on green skills, energy saving at work and demonstrating the USE-IT app. There was video conferencing training held from each site for staff to see and have a go as to how to set up and use the video conferencing facilities and representatives from the local Nissan dealership brought along two electric cars to show the benefits of these vehicles. Whilst Co Cars, a south west based car club were able to promote their scheme and give staff information about car clubs."

At Dorset County Hospital, an information stand was installed in restaurant to provide details on what the hospital is doing to reduce the site’s carbon footprint and how to reduce energy use at work, and home, as well as a sustainability quiz. While both Dorchester and Poole Hospitals held a Bicycle Clinic for staff to have a free bicycle check-up

Sally was given time to set up activities and added:

It was a very busy day with a number of events taking places across the CCG which gave staff information and knowledge of the benefits are using technology rather than travelling, as well as choices that are available of using and owning an electric car and that knowing that there is a car club operating in the local area."

Management supported the event, and in the local paper Tim Goodson, chief officer of NHS Dorset CCG, said:

Working in a sustainable way is everyone’s responsibility so we are always keen to support any activity or initiative that raises awareness of sustainability issues. 

Within the CCG we do our best to promote sustainable issues, a good example of which is our staff intranet which has recently seen the addition of a transport hub which encourages greener travel, giving staff information on public transport services, cycle schemes, car clubs and encourages the use of lift share for both getting to work and travelling to meetings. 

Whilst NHS Sustainability Day is a one off we hope that by raising these issues across the local health community we are able to make more permanent changes that will benefit the whole county."

NHS Sustainability Day is a national event and ULRs often get involved to promote learning about green issues and how wider learning can be embedded into the agenda.