Low carbon inhalers: an opportunity for much wider change

[摘要] General practice is in crisis, but the climate emergency and the urgent need to act cannot be put on hold while we wait for calmer times.Inhaler prescribing alone accounts for approximately 3% of the NHS’s carbon footprint. Unsurprisingly, this has been targeted by Greener NHS as a priority area.The majority of inhaler prescribing occurs in general practice and therefore the 2022/2023 Investment and Impact Fund (IIF) introduced two incentives to reduce the carbon footprint of inhalers. There has been great progress made in the environmental sustainability (ES)-02 indicator, which encouraged changing high carbon footprint salbutamol inhalers to one with a lower impact. This demonstrates that change, if it is relatively easy, can be implemented at a rapid pace, even at a time when general practice is under unprecedented pressure.Dry powder inhalers (DPIs) and soft mist inhalers (SMIs) have a much lower carbon footprint than the more commonly prescribed metered dose inhalers (MDIs).

[学科分类] 卫生学