Opportunities to address the environmental impacts of medication in primary care
This event is hosted by CASCADES, a pan-Canadian initiative supporting environmentally sustainable practices in healthcare.
Join us on May 8 at 12pm for the Opportunities to address the environmental impacts of medication in primary care, part one of the Primary & Community Care Implementation Series.
Medications are foundational to the provision of healthcare. At the same time, they have significant environmental impacts. Medications are estimated to contribute 25% of the carbon footprint of healthcare in Canada. This is even higher in primary care, with around 60% of the carbon footprint in primary care in the UK related to medications. In addition to resource use and greenhouse gas emissions associated with their production, packaging, transport, use and disposal, medications have other wide-ranging impacts on the environment.
Most prescriptions are written in primary care, so there is an opportunity to make a significant cumulative impact when primary care providers combine their expertise in collaborative, patient-centred care with sustainable prescribing and medication use.
In this session of the Sustainable Primary & Community Care Implementation Series, we will hear from both prescriber and pharmacist experiences:
- Ilona Hale, Family physician, East Kootenay Division of Family Practice; Assistant Clinical Professor, Department of Family Practice, University of British Columbia
- Trudy Huyghebaert, Clinical Pharmacist for the Department of Family Medicine at the University of Calgary/Alberta Health Services.