There are so many other problems besetting the NHS just now that talking about sustainability and environmental policies is diversionary. Right? Wrong.
As speaker after speaker emphasised at the conference organised by the Climate and Health Council1 which took place on the 29 January 2008 and held at the Royal College of Physicians, ‘Climate change and its impact on health’, what is good health advice for individual patients, eating less fat, cycling, controlling fertility, is also good for the health of the planet.
The editor of The Lancet, Richard Horton, said, ‘Climate change is about social and environmental justice and doctors need to be advocates for their patients and their countries and create a social movement across the health sector’. Fiona Godlee, editor of the BMJ, quoted GMC guidelines. One of the two duties of a doctor laid down by them is ‘to protect and promote …