NHS warned not to sacrifice patient care on ‘altar of net zero’

The NHS has been warned it risks driving away important suppliers in its pursuit of net zero. Its war on carbon emissions has come under fierce attack, with the health service told “virtue signalling does not help make patients better or reduce pain”.

There is worry that companies that fail to meet stringent requirements coming into force next year will be shut off from supplying the healthcare giant. The NHS boasts that in 2020 it became became “the world’s first health system to commit to reaching net zero”. It aims to achieve this by 2040 for the emissions it controls directly – and it has introduced wide-ranging expectations for would-be suppliers.

This has stoked concern that patients will lose out if the red tape stops businesses bidding to supply the NHS. From April, tighter requirements will come into force for companies wanting contracts worth £5million-plus, with suppliers having to report their emissions and publish a carbon reduction plan. The plan must “confirm the supplier’s commitment to achieve net zero by 2050 or earlier for their whole organisation”. And there is particular anxiety about requirements to report on indirect emissions.

The trade body BritishAmerican Business (BAB) warned in June there are “significant concerns” that a new requirement to include “non-UK operational emissions” will “place an undue and disproportionate burden on some companies with extensive global supply chains”. It fears enterprises which fail to make the global commitment will end up “excluded from participating in supply tenders with the NHS”.

Reform UK deputy leader Richard Tice has pledged to write to ministers to urge them to abandon rules he claims could lead to companies being effectively “blacklisted as an accredited NHS supplier”.

He said: “Ministers should also have to explain to the public what they are doing and why… This virtue signalling does not help make patients better or reduce pain.”

Mr Tice claimed it is “particularly foolish and unjust that manufacturers will have to tally up their carbon emissions worldwide through their global supply chains” and that it will “not be enough for them to report carbon emissions at the point of manufacture”.

“NHS patient care must not be slaughtered on the altar of net zero in a forlorn bid to win futile green brownie points,” he added.

Conservative Shadow Health Secretary Stuart Andrew warned Labour against putting “even greater green burdens on suppliers”, saying this would “inevitably” result in “some pulling the plug”.

He said: “The focus should be on delivering the best possible care for patients – not on meeting impossible self-inflicted goals.”

BritishAmerican Business stresses that “life sciences and medical technology companies play an important role in supporting the NHS, investing in the UK economy, and providing innovative medicines, technologies, and healthcare products for patients”. It argues that “unintended barriers to cost-effective NHS procurement, inward investment, patient access and choice, or supply chain resilience” must be avoided.

The British In Vitro Diagnostics Association told the Sunday Express: “Any policy objective from government or the NHS must always consider both the impact on the ability of the supply chain to meet requirements and the impact on patients. Without amendment, there may be concerns about product availability in the future. The UK in vitro diagnostics sector supports the NHS’s net zero ambitions and is already taking significant steps to reduce its environmental impact. As carbon reporting requirements develop, the focus must be on ensuring they are implemented in a way that is practical, proportionate and consistent across the NHS, supporting sustainability objectives while safeguarding patient access to innovative technologies and a resilient supply chain.”

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: “It is categorically untrue that patients will be put at risk by the transition to net zero. The NHS has clearly recognised that, where there are limited options for critical goods, equipment and services, patient care will come before any procurement requirements. However, it is also a statement of fact that the NHS has already saved hundreds of millions of pounds in energy costs through the adoption of greener ways of working, which they have been able to channel back into frontline care. This includes hospitals in Lincolnshire, which have benefited from over £5million of investment to install solar panels, reducing their energy bills and saving funds to be spent on patient care instead.”