International Sustainable Healthcare Symposium - Auckland, New Zealand Aotearoa

The Sustainable Healthcare and Climate Solutions Roadshow has crossed the Tasman!

Welcoming sustainable healthcare supporters and those interested in learning more in low waste, high value solutions, our first New Zealand event takes place in Auckland on Saturday 15th March.

Location: Rooftop Bar, Brew on Quay, 102 Quay Street, Auckland

Hybrid event
This is primarily an in-person event however we will have an opportunity for those who cannot make it in-person to join online between 1.15 - 4.45pm. Online links will be sent out on the 14th March to your registered email address.

Event Overview:
Our healthcare systems and societies face unprecedented challenges, but together, we can take small steps that make a huge impact. This event includes presentations, Q&A sessions and an opportunity to connect and learn with like-minded people with an interest in accelerating and scaling sustainability solutions across our systems. 


We are delighted to include both healthcare professionals, and also non-healthcare individuals who are involved in sustainability and/or climate risk mitigation and are interested in supporting this initiative.

OUR PROBLEMS

Unsustainable systems
Healthcare and many other systems in place today are not sustainable if we continue in our current path. Costs, patient numbers and complexities are increasing annually, whilst staffing and facilities are being stretched beyond their capacity.

Growing climate impacts
On top of this, climate event impacts are becoming increasing burdens on health, economy and societal structures, globally and locally. We are on track for severe challenges to society and health if we do not rapidly pivot and mitigate risks through decarbonisation and other system transformations.

Our health is dependent on Maslow’s hierarchy
Irrefutable evidence shows we are facing severe global threats to the fundamentals of societal security with risks to food, water and other resources supply, financial systems, inequality, mass migration, and social conflict. Our health is completely dependent on the ecosystems we live in, and as healthcare leaders we are taking this on. 

A new way of thinking
The health community now recognizes fossil fuels as significant health hazards, contributing to an estimated 5.1 million excess deaths per year globally due to air pollution. The healthcare system itself contributes over 5% of global fossil fuel emissions, exacerbating climate-related health impacts. However, we have an opportunity to reverse this trend. By decreasing emissions and improving our patient care delivery, we can make a substantial impact. 

Photograph acknowledgement: Royal College of Surgeons UK

OUR SOLUTIONS

Following on from our events across New South Wales, and Europe our multi-sector team of collaborators are working with New Zealand colleagues to build further momentum as we bring urgency and scale to drive better, tailored more sustainable healthcare across Australasia.

Driving patient tailored care - more efficient, improved use of resources
Driving down unnecessary and wasteful care in hospitals and primary care through the reduction of the 30% of healthcare that is deemed to be low-value and 10% that is considered to be harmful. Surprisingly only 60% of healthcare is to regarded to be high value care, and by identifying what is not high value healthcare we have developed programs that target reducing non-indicated testing, medications, and management.

This streamlining approach will ultimately enhance our stretched healthcare systems and focus on what really matters, and reduce futile use of limited resources. This is better, tailored healthcare model also starts to reduce our significant greenhouse gas emissions, which are more twice that of global aviation.

Decarbonising international healthcare
This ‘getting our house in order’ approach is crucial as we drive down our 5% contribution to global emissions from healthcare. We are also leveraging our unique position of trusted and influential health leaders to meet the climate crisis head on with enhanced advocacy and engagement with policy makers, and other key persons of influence in communities, industries and governments.

Healthcare influence on global industries
Healthcare leaders and organisations can have a huge impact on the remaining 95% of global emissions by demonstrating the severe health threats from climate impacts, and the absolute need for other industries to follow healthcare and rapidly decarbonise and accelerate systems transformations to a sustainable future.

OUR TEAMS AND LEVERS
 
Leaders from across Australian, UK and Irish healthcare and other relevant systems will be sharing insights and experiences, case studies and success stories. We are continuing a successful and enjoyable theme with high audience participation and showcasing engaging topics highlighted below.

• Key themes include:

Critical mass and social proof
How will we engage our communities, clinicians and executive colleagues in the transition to Sustainable Healthcare? A dual approach harnessing top-down and grassroots engagement and leverage is vital to success.

Strategic coordination is crucial also and we will discuss how we are driving these key components to find win/wins for all stakeholders which is a key to success.

Value-based care
Reducing low-value care, and promoting high-value care are new concepts that have started to permeate healthcare circles, but what do they mean, and how do we implement these concepts?

We will share successful examples, and practical strategies to bring more efficient, less wasteful programs to life in your workplace.

Reducing unnecessary pathology and other testing, de-prescribing polypharmacy, and promoting more nature and social-based approaches are key examples to how we are sparking behavioural change which catalyses the mindset change essential for widespread clinical transformation.

Low carbon care is high value care. It is often better, more appropriate and more cost effective healthcare which focuses on the patient as an individual and cleaves the 30-40% of low value and harmful care we currently provide.

Building capacity
Effective strategies and concepts are futile if they are not resourced to do so. Capacity building is through our people, and we will discuss the three pathways to engage our teams in a sustainable and long term approach.

• i) UNPAID ROLES
  Volunteer champions are important but quickly burn out and require support from a funded organisational structure.
  
  
• ii) ADDING TO CURRENT ROLES
  Integrating sustainability roles and responsibilities into current jobs and workplans is good in theory but is challenging in practice as our clinical teams are already at maximum capacity.
  
  
• iii) DEDICATED FUNDED ROLES
  A key strategy for success is to fund specific Sustainable Healthcare roles within hospitals and primary care systems. By demonstrating real cost savings, business cases can be utilised to create new, innovative clinician-led roles which focus on decreasing low-value care and simultaneously delivering enhanced patient care, lower healthcare costs, and decreased waste and carbon footprint.
  
  

Moving the money
As Archimedes identified, if we can identify the right lever, we can move the world. There is no more powerful lever than money to drive solutions across systems.

Whilst our focus is primarily on patient care, improving efficiencies and healthcare decarbonisation, this will not be sufficient to prevent health and climate catastrophe. We need to be aware of the whole ecosystem to find real global solutions, and finance is a vital component to success.

Shifting finance is crucial in two aspects:

1. Funding new sustainability roles
   Harnessing healthcare cost savings to fund new Sustainable Healthcare positions which will build an integrated and impactful network across our health systems.
   
   
2. De-funding fossil fuels industries
   We are working towards unleashing the potential of global healthcare organisations and workforce to ‘move its money’ away from the health hazards that fossil fuels are accepted to be.

Air pollution from fossil fuel use accounts for over 5 million extra deaths a year as reported in the British Medical Journal in 2023.

In 2021, global healthcare spending was 10.3% of the global gross domestic product (GDP), or $9.8 trillion. Shifting the healthcare economy off fossil fuels can lead to the global economic tipping point needed to finally phase out coal, gas and oil, through a sustainable, planned and equitable approach.

Why Attend?

Our healthcare systems face unsustainable challenges due to funding limitations, increasing and ageing populations and escalating risks from climate related impacts. 30% of healthcare practices are considered low value, providing little or no benefit to patients. By collaborating, we can deliver better, tailored care, reduce waste, and optimise health funding.

GUEST SPEAKERS AND PANELLISTS INCLUDE:

• Prof Hugh Montgomery OBE
  Professor Intensive Care, University College London,
  Co-chair, The Lancet Countdown on Health and Climate Change
  Geneticist, Author, Co-Founder Real Zero
  London, UK
  
  
• Dr Brian O’Connell
  Emergency Physician, General Practitioner, Climate Risk & Sustainable Healthcare Clinical Lead, Australia. 
  Medical Lead, Net Zero Hub for NSW Emergency Departments, NSW Ministry of Health
  Board Director, Climate and Health Alliance Australia, UNSW Conj Lecturer,
  Deputy Chair, Sustainable Emergency Medicine and Climate Advocacy Network, ACEM
  Coffs Harbour, Australia
  
  
• Dr Debbie Wilson
  Sustainability Practitioner | Doctor of Health Sciences
  Auckland, New Zealand
  
  
• Dr Karen Danenhauer
  Emergency Doctor and author of Sustainable Doctor
  Oakura, Taranaki, New Zealand
  
  
• Lesley Fitzpatrick
  Clinical Nurse Consultant, Emergency Department
  Royal North Shore Hospital, Sydney, Australia
  
  
• Ciarán Hughes
  Certified Financial Planner at Ethico
  Expert in pension & investment solutions  
  TedX Talk: Could 60 Trillion Dollars Solve the World's Biggest Problems?
  Dublin, Ireland
  
  
• Dr Mark de Souza
  Emergency Physician, PhD Candidate
  Darwin, Australia
  
  
• Plus the team from EHSCA and other local teams
  
  More New Zealand leaders and collaborators to be announced!
  

Opportunities:

• The 7Acts
  • What are they? And how can the 7Acts catalyse a tipping point towards global climate solutions?
    
    
• How Moving our Money can help solve the Climate Crisis
  • Make My Money Matter
  • Irish focused resources available soon
    
    
• Moving healthcare facilities towards plant-based menus
  • More Plant-Based Food; Seasonal & Local – Why?
    
    
• Reducing Low Value Care
  • Unnecessary pathology testing
  • De-prescribing Unnecessary Medications
  • The Gloves are Off!
    
    
• Energy stewardship
  • CT switch for savings
  • Lights off / Computers off initiatives

All feedback welcome. Please add to registration form or as required.
Please add dietary requests.

This event has low cost tickets to cover the event costs.