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HSJ award-winning medicines waste campaign inspired by CSH course

NHS Dorset medicine waste campaign wins HSJ Award 2024

We’re pleased to announce that NHS Dorset’s ‘Only Order What You Need’ campaign has won the HSJ Medicines, Pharmacy, and Prescribing Initiative of the Year Award 2024. This campaign, which empowered patients to reduce medicines waste, achieved extraordinary results, including:

• 65,000 fewer prescription requests
• £475,000 in cost savings
• Prevention of 295 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions

The campaign was inspired by the Centre for Sustainable Healthcare’s (CSH) Foundation course on sustainable health.

“Learning about the principles of sustainable health on my first CSH course gave life to the ‘Only Order What You Need’ campaign – a patient empowerment programme to reduce medicines waste. Understanding these principles helped us identify levers for change. As a concept, it’s beautifully simple but powerful and enables HCPs to make environmentally sustainable change here and now. Thank you!”

Tracy Lyons, Medicines Optimisation Pharmacist & Pharmacy Sustainability Lead at NHS Dorset | Founder of Pharmacy Declares

This award highlights the potential of sustainability-focused education to create impactful change in healthcare. Congratulations to Tracy and the NHS Dorset team!

Missed Tracy Lyons’ inspiring presentation during our Pharmacy SusNet event?

You can now watch the recording of the award-winning NHS Dorset ‘Only Order What You Need’ campaign on our YouTube channel. In this engaging presentation, Tracy Lyons shares the story behind this transformative initiative, offering valuable insights into how sustainability principles can drive impactful change in healthcare.

Discover how the campaign reduced 65,000 prescription requests, saved £475,000, and prevented the release of 295 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions. Tracy’s talk is a must-watch for anyone looking to make meaningful, sustainable improvements in healthcare systems.

Northampton General Hospital’s Hand Therapy initiative highly commended at the 2024 HSJ Awards

Northampton General Hospital NHS Trust has been Highly Commended at the 2024 HSJ Awards for its innovative hand therapy pathway. This project, designed to improve outcomes post-hand surgery, was completed as part of the 2023-24 Green Team Competition with Northampton General Hospital NHS Trust, showcasing the Trust’s commitment to sustainability and patient care.

Interested in making an impact like this? Explore CSH courses here.