So things are looking up here in the steel city :) Heres the latest:
GP progress...
I've had a really positive response from a practice in Sheff who has already made substantial progress to becoming 'green'. They've given me the contacts for some other practices who they know are also interested in doing a similar thing but haven't quite got around to doing it yet...cue the 'donkey workers' (BCMCCP members!) I'm hoping to get in touch with them ASAP: ideally I'd like to calculate their current carbon footprint, then implement some carbon reduction measures, and finally assess their progress over the coming 7 months and use this as a case study for sustainable development within a primary care setting. Very exciting news is the GP 10:10 checklist is almost finished - based it on some past correspondence that Frances had had and asked the Sheff GP for their feedback. Elly is now going to get her GP practice in Brighton to feedback as well and then hopefully we can get that up and running on the 10:10 and Campaign for Greener Healthcare websites.
Food fun ...
I'm yet to contact the man in charge of this at Sheff NHS Trust - the reason being I tried to contact John Hughes first - has done some really amazing work with Nottingham NHS trust in terms of food and catering, if you have a minute you can see a summary of what he acheived here: http://www.corporatecitizen.
to see if he could give me any advice before heading into it feeling completely blind...But unfortunately I didn't get any response. Anyway, I've done a bit of reading around it though still much more needed but I'm going to hopefully write to the Sheff man in charge and see what response I get and take it from there. Has anyone got any draft/final letters they've sent to chief execs and have had positive responses from? Did we get any further with designing a draft template letter? Theres something veeeeeery exciting going on in Sheffield soon which I think could help get some results with the trust....
...Sheffield Food Festival and Food Plan!
Stumbled across this during some internet roaming and looks like it could be the perfect motivations for Sheff NHS trust to get themsleves into gear with more sustainable food procurement policy. Its the brainwave of a group of people called The Public Health Improvement Team in Sheffield who work to 'address the wider determinants of health and well being' and work with NHS Sheffield amongst others. The Food Plan is a work in progress which aims to : "draw together some of the key issues affecting food in Sheffield. Part of this will focus on healthy eating and people’s access and ability to cook safe, nutritious and affordable food. As well as this, issues such as the environmental impact of the food we eat, the local food economy and our food security will be addressed." Amazing!! So...emailed to find out what the plan is regarding Sheff NHS and awaiting a response. No reply as yet so I think I'm going to go in person next week as their office is easily accessible and in the town hall-always works better having a face to a name as well! The Food festival is planned sometime in June and is there to support the key themes of the Food Plan as well as to celebrate 'Sheffield's culture of food' (theres gonna be alot of pie and Hendersons relish! (check out sheff's own version of Lee&Perrins you can even get a tshirt: http://www.hendersonsrelish.com) . I thought if we could get it sorted it would be a brilliant opportunity to have our own BCMCCP stall and offer the Carbon Addict screening??!! What do people think??
Finding other students...
I've been in touch with two other students at Sheffield who have been involved with trying to set up a Healthy Planet and are really keen to get involved with BCMCCP stuff. Unfortunatey both of them have had/still have exams so we haven't got much further than swopping contact details and sending round a few emails. Up till now I've held off sending round mass emails to med school/environmental societies as I wasn't entirely sure of what exactly was planned for the next few months. However, now that there is a better idea I think it'll really help having a few more people on board (especially with the Food Festival and the donkey work thats going to be needed with the GP case study!) so that'll be something to think of soon...
The next few weeks:
- Finish GP 10:10 agreement - get it up on the websites so it can be downloaded if needed
- Get in touch with the interested Sheff GP practices and see what we can plan to acheive in the next 7 months
- Go down in person to the office of the Public Health Improvement Team and get involved with the Food Plan and the Food Festival - ask about the possiblity of a BCMCCP stall!
- Write a letter to the Sheff NHS food man in charge - ask about Food Plan - are they involved? What progress is being made...if any..!
- Update the other students at Sheff - discuss getting more people involved and what roles they could have
- Get on with the SDL!!! Haven't done as much as I would have liked by now so I'm going to really try and set aside some time each week specifically for this.
Hope alls well with everyone else? After falling out with my computer (no more virus but now apparently just need more RAM (or 'memory' for technophobes like me)) I'm hopefully going to be all Skyped-up and ready to roll in the next 1/2 weeks so hopefully be speaking to you all very soon....
Phil xx
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