Mar 23, 2023
Ambulance Victoria has committed to become a more sustainable
ambulance service. This includes achieving net zero emissions five
years prior to the Victorian State Government commitment of 2050
with additional emissions reduction targets for 2025 and 2030. By
fulfilling these targets, the carbon footprint for each patient
cared for by Ambulance Victoria will be halved by 2030.
It is apparent that to meet these emission reduction targets,
Ambulance Victoria's current model of care needs perpetual
refinement. Reducing emissions from electricity and fleet start to
look easy in comparison to reducing low value care. Delivering
better care to a patients according to their particular healthcare
needs suggests that our pre-hospital service needs to be reimagined
to start prior to any patient picking up the phone to dial Triple
000. Ambulance Victoria are discovering new ways to offer best care
for particular patient cohorts via new technologies such as
telehealth and the Virtual ED and by partnering across our
communities primary and secondary healthcare networks, to offer
timely support to those for whom an ambulance doesn't offer the
greatest benefit.
In 2021, Ambulance Victoria undertook a study to map the carbon
pollution associated with its Triage Services and measure changes
in carbon pollution resulting from the use of alternate patient
care pathways. The analysis revealed interesting results that have
implications for pre-hospital service design in the future. We hope
that this study offers insight into new ways of thinking for
decision makers and enables a triple bottom line approach to
assessing the benefit of programs and keeping an awareness of how
to serve the community in more environmentally sustainable
ways.
Using a multipronged approach to improving healthcare
sustainability at Ambulance Victoria can reduce the environmental
impact of pre-hospital healthcare services and thereby minimise the
health impacts from the sector that are associated with dangerous
climate change.