Rammya Mathew: Climate action will require radical reform of how we practise medicine

In 2020 the NHS adopted a multi-year plan to become the world’s first carbon net zero national health system.1 Simon Stevens, then chief of NHS England, said that “it’s not enough for the NHS to treat the problems caused by air pollution and climate change—we need to play our part in tackling them at source.”

Since then, remote consulting has brought us a long way down the road to a greener NHS. In hospitals and in primary care the ability to conduct remote reviews will have significantly reduced vehicle emissions associated with travel to and from the 400 …