How ‘net zero stupidity' inspired an NHS spending spree

Telegraph

6 days ago

When Sir Simon Stevens unveiled plans for the NHS to become the first healthcare system in the world to hit net zero, the former NHS chief made 'no apologies' for setting the target during Covid.
In his words, putting the health service at the forefront of the fight against climate change was vital in tackling the 'most profound long-term threat to the health of the nation'.
The NHS has set an ambition to reach net zero emissions from its own activities by 2040 – 10 years ahead of the national target.
However, this 'world-leading' objective is now under increasing scrutiny as the NHS faces the biggest crisis in its 75-year history, with more than 7m people stuck on waiting lists and financial pressures mounting.
It is not only hospitals and GP surgeries that have been set stretching targets. Suppliers of medicines and medical equipment will also have to hit net zero by 2045 if they want to keep working with the health service.
Crucially, the rules will also force all NHS suppliers to publicly report their emissions by 2027, excluding them from bidding for contracts if they fail to make progress on net zero by the end of the decade.
Such bold goals are now becoming a target for politicians on the Right, who fear it is adding unnecessary strain on the beleaguered health service.
Zia Yusuf, the former chairman of Reform UK, made the point in a damning social media post last month, as he advanced the party's pledge to scrap a target to hit net zero by 2050.
'Instead of prioritising the record waiting lists or the tens of thousands who wait more than three days in A&E each year, the Westminster elite decided the NHS should achieve net zero by 2040 and for NHS suppliers by 2045,' he said.
'All these insane rules result in taxpayers endlessly forced to put more into the NHS and yet struggle to see a doctor.'
Underpinning the argument are concerns that strict net zero targets will increase costs for the 80,000 suppliers that work with the NHS, pushing up a procurement bill already at £27bn a year.
The timing of the debate is also key, coming just days after the Labour Government announced its 10-year plan to reform the NHS.
Despite growing strain on the public finances, Sir Keir Starmer has demanded that every part of the country must offer access to care six days a week in what he promised was 'one of the most seismic shifts in care in the history of the health service'.
Edward Argar, the shadow health secretary, says this planned and costly overhaul makes it even more important to avoid distractions such as net zero.
He says: 'The NHS needs to be focusing its energy and its funding first and foremost on what makes a direct difference for patients, what will improve the quality of their care, and what will improve their access to it.'
Chris Naylor, a senior fellow at the King's Fund charity, argues that the strict climate targets will help businesses that work with the NHS to plan ahead and prepare for the future.
'What suppliers for the NHS often say is, 'We just want to know what it is we're going to be required to do and to be given some notice of that,'' he says. 'I think this supplier roadmap does that.'
Yet even he admits that the impact on smaller suppliers could be disproportionate.
'I do think it's really important that support is available to them around stuff like carbon measurement,' he says.
According to a recent report from the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB), only 15pc of small firms have measured their carbon footprint, posing a significant challenge for many suppliers if they want to compete for NHS contracts in future.
Of the small businesses that have been asked to measure their emissions by the Government, only 35pc were able to do so.
This highlights the growing risks associated with embracing decarbonisation too quickly, even if the NHS argues some of its net zero plans will help save money. A spokesman points to a planned £59m of savings in travel and transport, which they say will be reinvested into patient care.
Yet such small savings will do little to help win the argument against net zero sceptics, particularly as more hospitals lose money and battle high waiting lists.
Research published earlier this year by the think tank Nuffield Trust found that 55pc of NHS trusts had a deficit in 2023-24, an increase from 48pc in 2022-23.
Despite the growing financial constraints, NHS trusts are also pushing their own sustainability drive, with one London hospital trust launching a contract to decarbonise its hospitals.
Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust has asked energy companies to pitch green power systems for one of its central London hospitals, with the potential to expand the work across other public sector buildings.
Richard Tice, the energy spokesman for Reform, claimed to have found examples of unnecessary NHS green spending in his own constituency of Boston and Skegness. He took aim at a new £42m, 19-bed mental health unit in Boston, Lincolnshire, that will be entirely carbon-neutral, arguing its focus on net zero would take away from other resources the NHS needs.
'That means that other facilities are denied, whether it's extra staff, whether it's extra medicines, whether it's another facility, a bigger A&E,' Tice said.
The Pilgrim hospital in Boston has been awarded £23m to upgrade its energy infrastructure, including making its heating system net zero-compliant. Tice said the NHS was wasting millions on 'net zero stupidity' in Boston, adding: 'It's the patients who suffer because the money spent on this means it can't be spent on patient care.'
Mark Platts, chief finance officer at Lincolnshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, said: 'In line with all new NHS buildings, the unit will meet high national standards of sustainability and the NHS commitment to net zero. Doing so will also help reduce our energy costs in the future, which can be reinvested in clinical care.'
Tice isn't the only person concerned about unnecessary costs. Last month, Sir Jim Mackey, the head of the NHS, said the health service was too often 'deaf' to criticism and 'wasted a lot of money'.
In recent years the NHS has become increasingly reliant on the costly services of US tech giants such as Palantir and Larry Ellison's Oracle.
Mackey's comments came as he warned that failing to listen to public frustration could mean the end of a publicly funded state health service.
Indeed, while Reform has said that the NHS should remain free at the point of use, Nigel Farage has previously called on its funding model to be re-examined.
'Everyone knows we are not getting value, let's re-examine the whole funding model and find a way that's more efficient,' he told the BBC in March.
Meanwhile, questions remain over how achievable the NHS's net zero ambitions really are. Nick Watts, the founding chief sustainability officer of the NHS, told the New Statesman last year that there was a '50-50' chance that it would reach the 2040 target.
Lord Mackinlay, former chairman of the net zero scrutiny group, says net zero spending adds to growing scrutiny of just how much cash is being sucked up by the health services.
'The NHS one is very serious because it's an institution that absorbs money like it's going out of fashion,' he says. 'It is a very, very hungry beast and it's not doing the stuff which is customer-focused.'
A Government spokesman said: 'We are helping hospitals across the country save hundreds of millions on their energy bills so they can reinvest those savings into frontline services.
'Thanks to this Government's investments, money that is currently being wasted in high energy bills will be redirected to patients and services - we are providing over £1bn of funding over three years to fund hundreds of local energy schemes to decarbonise public buildings and help them access clean, affordable power.'