Newcastle Hospitals commissions a staff bus service, known affectionately as the Hopper, to transport staff between our two main sites, the Royal Victoria Infirmary and the Freeman Hospital.
Newcastle Hospitals was the first healthcare organisation in the world to declare a climate emergency in 2019. To achieve our vision of being a global leader in sustainable healthcare we set a goal that our operational transport activities would generate no harmful air pollution.
To achieve this goal we have worked with Go North East to switch the Hopper from a vehicle powered by fossil fuels to an electric vehicle, saving 144 tonnes of CO2e per annum.
This also improves our score on the Clean Air Hospital Framework working towards “excellent” status, and clean air for our patients, staff and our local communities.
