Dental practices awarded for becoming more sustainable

Primary care staff are being rewarded for introducing greener ways of working across their practices in Swansea Bay.

GP practices, dentists, pharmacies and opticians have been striving to become more environmentally friendly by making a number of changes.

The Greener Primary Care Wales Framework and Award Scheme was introduced by Public Health Wales to encourage primary care staff to think about more sustainable ways of working.

The scheme is made up of a suite of clinical and non-clinical actions that staff can implement within their practice.

Pictured: Talbot Road Dental Practice staff with their award.

Each practice can choose which actions to complete, and a point is given for each one they manage to implement.

As more actions are completed, the practices can achieve bronze, silver and gold awards for their efforts.

Two dental practices in Neath Port Talbot, GCG Dental Practice and Talbot Road Dental Practice, have recently achieved gold awards for their work to become more environmentally friendly.

One step staff at Talbot Road Dental Practice, in Port Talbot, took was to transform what had been a car parking area at the practice into a garden for staff, complete with planters, water features and reclaimed furniture.

The team even won the Environmental Improvement Award, an additional award as part of the scheme, for the transformation.

Clare Jones, a dental nurse at Talbot Road Dental Practice, said: “We became involved in 2022 and built on it every year, so we achieved a bronze in the first year, a silver in the second and now a gold award.

“I think our biggest success has been the garden area.

“It was primarily used as a drive for two cars but we started turning it into an outdoor area for our staff and it has just grown and grown.

“Everything in the garden is reclaimed, we’ve got two outdoor tables and seats around them. We’ve got planters, a bird bath and a bug hotel. We get lots of bees and butterflies.

“It is really well used by the staff, and we even get patients bringing plants in for us too so it’s really community driven.”

Many of the actions range from improvements that can be made to the building and its facilities, through to behavioural changes too.

Janette Harrison, one of the practice owners, said: “They are split into actions you can take within the building, such as lighting, to things you can do to encourage more sustainable behaviours, such as using Fairtrade tea and coffee and how you travel to work.

“When we started, we were surprised by how much we were already doing.

“There are also dentistry specific actions, as there are GP, pharmacy and optometry specific ones too.

“An example would be using digital x-rays which are more environmentally friendly than the previous manual film processing ones, as you get rid of the associated chemicals.”

The practice has even had a tree planted in its name at one of the NHS forests after being named ‘team of the month’ for completing so many actions.

“We were really proud to have the tree planted in our name,” Clare added.

“I think it’s really important to make feasible changes, whether they are big or small.

“We have all got a part to play in becoming more sustainable and if you can make positive changes then you should, as it helps to educate others too.” 

Staff at GCG Dental Practice, in Gwaun-Cae-Gurwen, had already been taking steps to improve sustainability at the practice but have since used the Greener Primary Care Wales framework to make further improvements.

Yvette Powe, dentist at GCG Dental Practice and dental lead for Cwmtawe and Upper Valleys Local Cluster Collaboratives, said: “We had been running a sustainability project in the practice for the last few years and had already been implementing lots of changes.

“The framework was really useful as there were points on there we hadn’t thought about.

“For instance, we were already working towards having a sustainability policy but the framework helped us understand how to write it and what to include.

“We divided the actions amongst the teams, so we all had our own objectives to try and achieve.

“The team have been really motivated to make the changes and a lot of them we had already made or thought about. But the scheme was really good at pushing us that bit further to make some of the more significant changes.”

Pictured: GCG Dental Practice staff with their awards.

As well as achieving the gold award, the practice also received a special recognition award for implementing a change that wasn’t within the framework.

The team introduced a quality improvement project focused on reducing clinical waste.

Yvette said: “We ran an initial data collection exercise to determine our baseline and as a five-surgery practice with 18 members of staff, we were producing around 20kg of clinical waste per week.

“The clinical waste goes through incineration, which produces high levels of greenhouse gases. By reducing the amount of clinical waste we produced, we would therefore reduce the amount of incineration, landfill and CO2 emission.

“We have introduced numerous changes in the practice, including reusable equipment and changing instrument storage.

“As a result, we reduced our clinical waste production by 40 per cent. We are very proud that our efforts were recognised for the special recognition award.”

Yvette stressed the importance of long-term sustainability so staff can continue to provide excellent care for patients.

“Within healthcare, our priority is always the patient as they are at the centre of everything we do,” she added.

“But we need to consider the planet and our longer-term sustainability to be in a position to continue caring for our patients.

“I think it’s really important to make sure we are providing excellent standards of care for our patients, which is also sustainable.

“I think it’s really good for practices in primary care to get recognition for the changes they are making.

“We are all working towards the same goal, so it’s really helpful to be able to see what other practices are doing.”

Sam Page, Swansea Bay’s Head of Primary Care, said: “Congratulations to both Talbot Road and GCG Dental Practices on their recent awards. I am grateful to the staff for their involvement in the scheme, which is instrumental to making a difference to our future.

“Since the Framework's introduction in June 2022, over 30 primary care contractors in Swansea Bay have registered.

“Primary care services play a crucial role in addressing climate change and healthcare professionals and their teams are actively working to minimise their environmental impact.

“Furthermore, the framework is in alignment with Swansea Bay’s Decarbonisation Action Plan, reinforcing the health board's commitment to sustainability.”