South London Trusts launch Clean Air Plan

Guy’s and St Thomas’ and King’s College Hospital Foundation Trusts have jointly published their first Clean Air Plan.

Launched on Clean Air Day (15 June), the three-year plan outlines how the Trusts will address air pollution, raise awareness of the issue and ultimately improve the health of patients, staff and local communities.

The two south London Trusts, which cover 5 boroughs and include 37,000 staff with 4 million patient contacts, have outlined five areas of focus: monitoring; transport; procurement; their buildings and sites; and awareness raising, engagement and communications.

Poor air quality is the biggest environmental risk to public health in the UK.

Every hospital, medical centre and care home in London is in an area that exceeds the World Health Organisation’s guidelines for the concentration of air pollutants.

Key commitments in the 2023-26 plan include expanding ambient air quality monitoring on hospital sites to include a new air quality sensor at Harefield Hospital. This is in addition to existing sensors at Guy’s, St Thomas’, Royal Brompton, King’s College, Orpington and Princess Royal University hospitals.

The plan also aims to cut pollution from hospital loading bays by 2026. Work will be underway this year to record existing air quality levels, then targets set to reduce this for 2024/25.

There will be greener choices for transport with more e/cargo bikes for staff working in community and satellite teams across the Trusts, and a commitment to reducing the number of vehicles on the roads - especially those which do fewer than 15 miles a day. Where vehicles are necessary, more of these should be electric.

Tanja Dalle-Muenchmeyer, air quality manager at Guy’s and St Thomas’ and King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trusts, said:

Clean air is essential for our health and the health of the planet. Improving air quality has significant benefits including preventing illnesses, reduced health inequity and enhancing the environment we live and work in.

“We are delighted to publish our first Clean Air Plan setting out the actions we are taking. We’ve identified 5 focus areas and 27 priority actions for 2023/24 that will help us reduce our own contribution to air pollution and raise awareness of the issue amongst a wide range of people, including our patients and staff."

Professor Chris Whitty, Chief Medical Officer for England, said: "Air pollution will continue to improve, provided we are active in tackling it. This report is a helpful contribution to tackling the problem of air pollution and its disproportionate effect on the most vulnerable."

Find out more about sustainability at Guy's and St Thomas' and at King’s.