Clean air
Creating cleaner air for the UK’s most polluted hospitals The Clean Air Hospital Framework is the world’s first step-by-step guide for hospitals to create cleaner air. Larissa Lockwood, head of Health and Air Quality at Global Action Plan, explains
T framewhe created ork was conside with a wellr to wha ed approach and po t is practical ssib hospita le within a l setting
Back in 2018, Great Ormond Street Hospital asked environmental charity Global Action Plan: “What would a Clean Air Hospital look like, and how would it operate?” We discovered that there was no single, comprehensive guide for minimising air pollution inside and around hospitals, so we answered that need by creating one together. Combining Global Action Plan’s expertise from almost a decade’s worth of air quality initiatives with Great Ormond Street Hospital’s expert knowledge of running a world-leading
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hospital, the framework was created with a well-considered approach to what is practical and possible within a hospital setting. The resulting Clean Air Hospital Framework is a free, comprehensive guidebook of 215 possible steps – established with extensive staff input – that hospitals can take to minimise air pollution from everyday activities and advise patients about air quality and their health, as well as working in partnership at the local and national level towards broader societal change for cleaner air.
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Cleaner air where it matters most Our hospitals should be laces that improve our health. Last year’s report by the British Lung Foundation - Toxic air at the door of the NHS - revealed that 2,220 GP Practices and 248 hospitals in the UK are in locations with air pollution above WHO standards. The Clean Air Hospital Framework offers a straightforward plan to make it easier for hospitals to act on air quality. It takes a broad look at every aspect of a hospital to find specific areas of improvement, so they can operate with the cleanest air possible. Unpacking the framework The Clean Air Hospital Framework is a succinct, easy-to-understand compilation of information and actionable suggestions built on the everyday experience of staff delivering on-the-ground services within a busy NHS trust. It includes a presentation that can be used to explain the framework to staff, as well as a guidebook, which focuses on seven key areas to improve hospital air quality: travel; procurement and the supply chain; design and construction; energy generation; local air quality; communication and training; and hospital outreach and leadership. Each area has its own sub-list of actions that can be taken to improve air quality. The list of actions is widely varied - some can be done in the short-term, while some take time and planning, some require funding or wider systemic changes and some are simple changes in everyday care practices. The Clean Air Hospital Framework encourages hospitals to be ambitious, and to set one-, two-, five- and ten-year targets, and to ensure interdepartmental cooperation so the actions taken become a part of overall hospital strategy. Hospitals can track their progress using scoresheets provided within the framework and calculate their air improvement rating based on the number of actions they take on. This is used to prioritise which air improvement actions to undertake in each hospital’s clean air action plan. The framework was created with the purpose of being replicable and adaptable for each and any hospital. Great Ormond Street Hospital – an acute trust - has been a pioneer in incorporating the framework into their own system, but all hospitals have unique designs, specialisms, operations and locations bringing unique air quality challenges. The framework caters for all eventualities by directing hospitals to review all areas of their hospitals that may be prone to air quality issues, with a range of solutions proposed from which the hospital can choose the solutions that work best for them.
