Clinical Resources
Inhaler Prescribing
One of the largest areas of the carbon footprint in primary care is Meter Dose Inhaler (MDI) prescribing. In comparison to European data, there is scope to significantly and safely reduce this through moving patients onto dry powder inhalers.
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Greener Practice education pages includes six videos designed to update clinical knowledge on high quality and low carbon asthma care under the headings Introduction, Diagnosis, Disease Control, Device choice, Disposal and Approach to consultations.
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Greener Practice, with review and endorsement by the NHS England and NHS Improvement Inhaler Working Group, Asthma UK, and the British Lung Foundation, have produced a comprehensive guide, How to Reduce the Carbon Footprint of Inhaler Prescribing. The guide can be found here. Further information and resources regarding inhalers can be found on the Greener Practice website
- The Vale of York inhaler formulary for asthma provides information on accessible prescribing with indicators of the lower carbon impact inhalers. a link is available here.
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The Bradford District and Craven inhaler formulary is available here
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Right Breathe is a useful website that classifies inhalers by drug group / device plus pathway.
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NICE is encouraging the use of greener asthma inhalers and has useful information on their website, including a new patient decision aid , produced to facilitate discussions about inhaler options.
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The Inside Health programme on BBC Radio 4 discussed asthma and inhalers in January 2022 a link to a recording of this can be found
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Video - How to talk to patients about clean air A session for primary care practitioners on the importance of clean air, and how practitioners can support their patience with appropriate clean air messaging.
Prescribing
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Prescribing contributes by far the largest carbon footprint of all activities in General Practice. The Greener Practice website includes a page with a range of information on Prescribing and De-Prescribing.
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Every month, NHSE provides anonymised data about the prescribing patterns of GPs on Open Prescribing . This can be used as a reference point to track how your practice/PCN prescribes and benchmark against others.