More sustainability in the health and care sector

To improve people‘s physical and mental health, health and care organisations and the government have agreed, among other things, to:

• promote healthier, more sustainable, plant-based diets for patients, clients and health workers;
• apply new insights and experience to turn health and care facilities and their immediate vicinity into health-promoting settings.

It is important that health and care workers understand the relationship between human activity, climate change, the environment and health. Some of the actions to this end are:

• the health and care sector will actively participate in the wider debate on climate change and pollution;
• sustainable healthcare and Planetary Health will be integrated into medical and healthcare training;
• health and care organisations and insurers will address prevention and sustainable healthcare in their strategic documents (such as procurement policy).

By 2050 all health and care organisations must be carbon-neutral. Agreements include:

• The sector as a whole will aim to achieve a 30% reduction in carbon emissions, on average, from buildings and energy consumption by the end of 2026, taking 2018 as its reference year.
• Before 1 July 2024 major care providers will draft a road map, to be approved at administrative level, setting out a future-oriented plan to make their properties more sustainable. See the road map for the care sector in Dutch (January 2020) and the draft road map for the curative sector in Dutch (January 2020).
• From 2023, care providers with more than 100 staff will keep track of the emissions generated by staff journeys. They will also draft a transport and mobility plan specifying targets and measures to reduce carbon emissions and make journeys more sustainable.

The health and care sector uses a lot of raw materials and products such as medical devices and personal protective equipment (PPE). The sector will take steps to reuse more materials and reduce the use of new materials and resources where possible. By 2030, the volume of unsorted residual waste should be no more than 25% of total waste produced by the sector. In addition, the volume of unsorted waste in 2026 should be 25% lower than in 2018.

To achieve this the sector will:

• tap existing knowledge and experience on adopting circular practices and using raw materials efficiently, and translate this into action;
• include sustainability and circularity as objectives of procurement policy. For instance, by purchasing reusable products and services where possible;
• reduce the use of diapers and incontinence pads.

Pharmaceutical residues in surface and groundwater are an inevitable consequence of using medicines. The manufacture of medicines also has environmental and climate-related effects. To reduce the environmental impact of medicines, the sector and the government will, among other things:

• prescribe and issue medicines economically, that is, not more than the number of doses required;
• encourage patients to take their medication as prescribed (medication adherence);
• reduce discharges of radiographic contrast media into wastewater;
• continue implementing the chain approach to reducing pharmaceutical residues in water (in Dutch).