Trust hopes Low Carbon Skills Fund will help fast-track its net zero goals
Our team visit hospital where ambition and planning go hand in hand
A major NHS Trust, Barts Health has been awarded £706k from the Low Carbon Skills Fund to help plot its net zero journey over the next decade.
The East London NHS trust, which includes five large hospitals serving more than two million people, focuses priority on the health of its patients. However, it also takes seriously its responsibility to reduce it environmental impacts as well as protect the health of generations to come.
The NHS has declared a climate health emergency and has pledged to become the world’s first net-zero health service by 2040.
Barts Health NHS Trust is echoing this agenda.
The £706,234.00 from Phase 5 of the Low Carbon Skills Fund will be used to create heat decarbonisation plans across St Bartholomew’s Hospitals, The Royal London Hospital, Newham University Hospital, Mile End Hospital and Whipps Cross Hospital.
Our Phase 5 Low Carbon Skills Fund team went along to Whipps Cross Hospital to see for themselves how the trust will navigate the latest part of its net zero journey.
Our Salix team members Bea Golley, Christopher Masters and Milo Challiner met with Rob Speight, director estates and facilities and trust sustainability lead at Whipps Cross, George Welch-Williams, sustainable officer for Mile End and Whipps Cross Hospitals as well as engineers from Mitie who are responsible for conducting the building audit and survey.
Programme coordinator Bea said: “It’s always fascinating to visit large sites and talk to team members about how everything comes together and how one thing impacts another.
“There are very specific challenges working in hospitals, so to discuss the issues is really helpful because it enhances our knowledge as we work across the sector.
“The visit gave me the opportunity to sit down face-to-face with the authorising official (AO), which created a good opportunity to ask us any questions.
“As well as hearing about how they are planning the Phase 5 works, we could also hear about their other energy efficiency projects and future plans.
“This was a great opportunity to see the practical issues and solutions applied to the sites.”
There are very specific challenges working in hospitals, so to discuss the issues is really helpful because it enhances our knowledge as we work across the sector.
During the visit, our team took a close up look at plant rooms and existing gas heaters. The heat decarbonisation plan, audit and feasibility studies will explore how these are used and how they can be replaced with more energy efficient solutions once capital funding can be secured.
As our team toured the sites, it is clear that the priority must always be with the patients and working in a busy hospital, extra time must be built in to carry out works.
Each of the trust’s hospital sites cannot afford disruption. The Royal London in Whitechapel is a major teaching hospital, Whipps Cross in Leytonstone is a large general hospital with a range of local services and Newham in Plaistow is a busy district hospital.
The trust also includes Mile End Hospital which is a shared facility in Mile End for a range of inpatient, rehabilitation, mental health and community services. St Bartholomew’s in the city, London’s oldest hospital, is a regional and national centre for cardiac and cancer care.
It’s a huge challenge to get these sites on target for the challenging net zero targets as they must remain available to the population they serve.
Dr Philip Tamuno, the joint head of sustainability and net zero for Barts Health NHS Trust and Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals NHS Trust, said: “The Low Carbon Skills Funding is important because it will help us gain better insight into the energy we use as well as energy efficiency and heat decarbonisations opportunities across our hospitals use and plan further energy efficiency measures.
“We are proud that the NHS is the first health service to set a net zero carbon target by 2040. Here at Barts Health we have made great strides towards that target by progressively reducing our carbon footprint over the last decade.
“We are optimistic that we can maintain these strides. Therefore, we are currently refreshing the ambitious Green Plan we started work on before the pandemic, with the aim of reducing our direct emissions by 80% against our 2018/19 carbon footprint by 2030.”
The Low Carbon Skills Funding is important because it will help us gain better insight into the energy we use as well as energy efficiency and heat decarbonisations opportunities across our hospitals use and plan further energy efficiency measures.
Thank you to the Barts Health NHS Trust for hosting our team, we cannot wait to return to see what difference the Phase 5 Low Carbon Skills Fund has made and what works are planned for the future.
