With 7 percent of total CO2 emissions, healthcare is one of the most polluting sectors. However, policymakers only added sustainability at the very last moment to the Integral Healthcare Agreement (IZA). Now that many transformation plans are ready, it becomes clear that sustainability plays only a marginal role in them.
An IG&H study of 37 regional plans shows that all the plans contribute to the Green Deal goal of promoting prevention and physical and mental health. However, the focus on climate and environmental impact is very limited. For example, recycling is included in only seven plans, and pharmaceutical waste is addressed in just one plan. The use of e-health, which is mentioned in almost all the plans, has the side effect of reducing the number of patient travel movements.
The study further shows that healthcare providers do consider sustainability important, but it is only limited in the transformation plans. One reason for this is that the evaluation of sustainability is too voluntary. Sustainability is often an additional aspect of initiatives primarily focused on prevention, appropriate care, and digitalization. Preventing care and reducing the number of travel movements also lowers CO2 emissions. Thus, many transformation plans indirectly contribute to making healthcare more sustainable.
Urgency of Other Challenges
Healthcare providers indicate that they are overwhelmed with the increasing staff shortages and growing healthcare demand. This makes sustainability, perhaps understandably, a lower priority in the transformation plans. It also seems to be at odds with the affordability, quality, and accessibility of healthcare. Sustainable healthcare is often more expensive at first because substantial initial investments must be made. In the long run, sustainable measures can lead to significant cost savings.
The fact that sustainability was only included at the last moment in the IZA is indicative of the priority it has been given: contributing to sustainability seems like just a checkbox to tick. This is a missed opportunity when you consider that climate change is the biggest threat to our health. Giving the same priority to sustainability will not only contribute to making the healthcare sector more sustainable but will also help reduce future disease burden. There is plenty of reason to give more attention to sustainable plans within the Integral Healthcare Agreement.
More Attention to Sustainability
To truly make healthcare sustainable, much more investment is needed. Only 42 million euros have been allocated within the Green Deal 3.0 until 2026. This is in stark contrast to the 1.6 to 3.4 billion euros that are expected to be required to achieve the Green Deal goals.
If we want to meet the climate goals, part of the transformation funds must also be used purely for sustainability. With, for example, 7 percent of the available 2.8 billion from the IZA, we are not there yet, but it is at least a step in the right direction. To give more attention to sustainability, a more prominent place in the successor to the IZA, the Integral Healthcare and Welfare Agreement (IZWA), would also be a good idea. This could be done by establishing a separate sustainability thematic table. This may seem counter to the political current, but healthcare providers could collectively demand this.