RA Fawdry*, O Stapleton, E Wardle, C Sook and A Kocheta
Background: NHS England produces around 24.9 million tonnes of CO2 each year and its mission to work towards net zero requires each of us to do our part. Orthopaedics contributes 20% of the carbon emissions of the NHS, so the focus on ‘reduce, reuse, recycle’ in our specialty is important. The COVID-19 pandemic introduced telephone appointments to manage a range of conditions and have been shown to both be satisfying to patients but also capable of achieving good outcomes whilst having an environmental impact. We looked at how one surgeons’ change in practice has led to environmental and economic savings.
Methods: All patients who had undergone telephone follow up in the surgeon’s clinics in the period March 2020-March 2023 were retrospectively identified. The case notes were reviewed for condition, treatment and whether further follow up was required. The data was interrogated to determine travel distance and socioeconomic deprivation status of their postcode.
Results: In total 118 telephone appointments were carried out in the study period. 6 were excluded due to not sharing the address. Of the 112, 37.5% were for carpal tunnel syndrome, 62% were post op and 25% were post injection. 28 patients (26%) needed secondary face to face follow up, with no significant difference between post op or post injection (p=0.15). A total of 1,284 travel miles were avoided, saving 0.33 tonnes of CO2. 39.3% of patients came from the most deprived quintile of postcodes.
Discussion: Our results suggest that through a single surgeon changing practice, a significant saving of carbon emissions can be achieved. The potential for this to be multiplied through the whole NHS is vast. This also represents an important cost saving in travel and time passed on to patients, especially those patients from more deprived areas, without an impact on patient care.
Published Date: 2025-06-25; Received Date: 2024-10-22
