In Switzerland, this same sector is estimated to produce one ton per inhabitant annually. As an example, 10 % of the US-American greenhouse-gas (GHG) emission is generated by its health care sector (directly and indirectly), which represents almost two tons of CO 2eq per inhabitant annually. Estimations exist for all OECD countries, while more-detailed studies are available for Australia, China, Japan and the United Kingdom. Hospitals, medical devices and procedures or national health care systems as a whole have had their carbon footprints examined. Īmong the forty-one indicators, one focused on the mitigation of health care sector emissions. In this context, The Lancet Countdown on health and climate change started to review annually forty-one indicators that explore the relation between health and climate change and to assess the progress made by governments towards their engagement to the 2015 Paris agreement. The medical scientific community has increasingly urged for emergency action on climate change. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), warned that global warming will significantly affect hundreds of millions of people, but also found that mitigation options are available in every major sector and on every scale, from local to international.

Optimizing structural and organisational aspects of practice work could have a major impact on the carbon footprint of primary care practices without large-scale changes in medical activities. Simulation of best- and worst-case scenarios resulted in a ten-fold variation in CO 2eq emissions. Support activities generated 82.6% of the total CO 2eq. Emergency analyses requiring courier transport caused 5.8% of all emissions. Medical consumables produced 5.5% of CO 2eq emissions, while in-house laboratory and X-rays contributed less than 1% each. ResultsĪn average medical consultation generated 4.8 kg of CO 2eq and overall, an average practice produced 30 tons of CO 2eq per year, with 45.7% for staff and patient transport and 29.8% for heating. Collected data included invoices, medical and furniture inventories, heating and power supply, staff and patient transport, laboratory analyses (in/out-house) waste quantities and management costs. We then modelled an average and theoretical best- case and worst-case practices. We used life-cycle analysis to estimate carbon emissions of each sector, from manufacture to disposal, expressing results as CO 2 equivalents per average consultation and practice. We conducted a retrospective carbon footprint analysis of ten private practices over the year 2018. This study aims to quantify the average carbon footprint of a primary care consultation, describe differences between primary care practices (best, worst and average performing) in western Switzerland and identify opportunities for mitigation. Reduction of the primary care practice carbon footprint could contribute to decreasing global carbon emissions. The medical field causes significant environmental impact.

Whats a carbon footprint