Keywords: Primary healthcare Carbon Footprint. One health. Leadership. Quality of Healthcare. Education, medical
Setting:
A GP working group was formed in 2020 reporting to the Quality and Safety Committee of ICGP, The Irish College of General Practitioners is the professional body for education and training for general practice.
This working group in ICGP began when a diverse group of GPs met at educational meetings for GPs and GP Trainees and decided to correspond on the topic of planetary health and sustainability with each other. They discovered there was strong interest from wider college membership and approached senior leadership in ICGP to take activities forward as a pilot project and then became an official working group of the ICGP.
Target group:
GPs GP Trainees GP Nurses Practice Teams Patients. Families. Communities. Health Service leaders managers and educators
Description of the innovative practice or project:
https://www.icgp.ie/go/in_the_practice/planetary_health
Visual Summary of Outputs 2020-2024:
1.
Leadership, Advocacy, Role modelling in primary care through GP-led initiatives, innovations and dissemination of good, green, clinical, community practice.
2
Clinical Care: what GPs can do in normal practice. Greener prescribing Deprescribing Social prescribing, Lifestyle behaviour modification, active transport, social prescribing, plant-based nutrition, breast-feeding, clinical actions such as tests and referrals, patient education,
3
A greener practice workplace: The GP practice has a carbon footprint: heating lighting, water supply, water use, heating and cooling, energy use and source, sterilising and disinfection, infection control, plastic use and recycling, waste segregation, transport of patients and staff,
4
Medical Education. Publications. Research. Policy.
Evaluation:
The WG works on a national basis with GPs, GP Trainees, GP Practice team members, liaison activities with pharmacists, other healthcare workers, administrators, health service officers and managers. It reports to ICGP.
Next Steps:
Further integration into GP and GP Trainee education, CPD, research projects, publications, policy, liaison with initiatives in other countries
Lessons learned:
Rural and urban GPs can innovate, implement and lead green quality improvement from their practices when supported by GP leadership
#47
EQuiP is open to both Individual and Organizational Memberships. EQuiP offers a platform to improve the knowledge base and to improve closer collaboration between GPs / Family Doctors, researchers, educators, policy makers and organisations involved in quality and safety in family medicine and primary care.
