Patients: Travel

(asked on 23rd November 2021) - View Source

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment he has made of (a) the proportion of NHS greenhouse gas emissions attributed to patient transport and (b) what proportion is attributed to patients receiving in-centre dialysis.


Answered by
Edward Argar Portrait
Edward Argar
Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
This question was answered on 30th November 2021

The National Health Service is preventing unnecessary patient journeys through improved preventative medicine and enhanced digital care. As set out in Delivering a Net Zero National Health System, patient travel accounts for 5% of all NHS emissions. The Improving Non-Emergency Patient Transport Services (NEPTS) report published in August 2021 estimates that NEPTS journeys emit approximately 51,000-58,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent annually. This constitutes approximately 20% of NHS direct travel emissions. NEPTS deliver 11-12 million journeys a year with approximately 37% for patients requiring renal dialysis. Each year, approximately £460 million is spent on NEPTS with the average cost per patient journey at £38.

No such assessment has been made on the proportion of greenhouse gas emissions or the cost of patient transport attributed to patients receiving in-centre dialysis.

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