ORCID

Abstract

Background: Climate change is one of the greatest threats to human health. The UK health and care system is responsible for 4-5% of the country’s carbon footprint. Following an ambitious commitment to ‘delivering a net zero NHS’ [2], there is an ongoing urgent drive to advocate for proactive sustainability measures across workforce healthcare practice areas [3]. As the third largest workforce within the NHS, Allied Health Professionals (AHPs) are crucial players in this net zero commitment. To implement suitable carbon reduction strategies requires leadership and more clarity on the practical steps that AHPs can take, specific to their unique skillset. Objective: This study aimed to develop professional consensus on the actionable carbon reduction priorities across a sample of AHP professions. Setting: Allied Health Professionals working in diverse areas of practiceParticipants: n=101 participants from n=10 AHP professional disciplinesMethods: Using an adapted nominal group technique (NGT) ten workshops were run with AHP professional disciplines to discuss practice related carbon reduction priorities. Within workshops, ideas were discussed, scored and ranked, to produce a final consensus on top (5 or 10) priorities for carbon reduction for each profession. Results: Via thematic analysis, five cross-cutting themes emerged: i) resource use; ii) preventative healthcare, iii) digital transformation; iv) professional development/training and v) service efficiency/re-design. Findings align closely with those highlighted in the ‘AHPs Deliver’ strategic vision to prioritise environmental sustainability across practice areas. They also concur with the urgent call for stronger leadership within healthcare to embed sustainability and planetary health into ‘business as usual’ function. Conclusions: Despite some inherent limitations (e.g. purposive sampling which might have presented bias) this study provides a solid foundation on which to base future action to reduce carbon emissions within the UK healthcare context. Recommendations are made for AHP practice; advocacy and culture change; and for bold (collaborative) leadership to spearhead and direct transformational change towards greener healthcare across the AHP community.

Publication Date

2026-07-01

Publication Title

BMJ Leader

Acceptance Date

2026-06-15

Deposit Date

2026-07-06

Funding

The authors have not declared a specific grant for this research from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.

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Additional Files

AHP_consensus_priorities_SUPPLEMENTARY_FILE_1_updated.pdf (276 kB)

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