A group of staff from Newcastle Hospitals have joined with colleagues from across the north east to cycle between the region’s hospital sites as part of the national campaign ‘Ride for Their Lives’.
The team set off from Hexham Hospital, calling at Northumbria Specialist Emergency Care Hospital before a final stop at the Royal Victoria Infirmary. The aim of the ride is not just to raise awareness but to promote conversations and motivate action to address the impact the climate emergency and air pollution can have on health – especially the health of children.
This year’s ride follows the success of ‘Ride for Their Lives 2021’ which saw a team of 70 health care workers undertake a 500mile ride from Great Ormond Street Hospital in London all the way to the Royal Hospital for Children in Glasgow to coincide with the global COP26 climate conference.
Dr Mike McKean, consultant in respiratory paediatrics at the Great North Children’s Hospital took part in the ride again this year along with Dr Sarah Walpole, Dr Heather Lambert, Dr Milo Cullinan, Dr Mahmoud El-Hamouly and Dr Jenny Friend . He said: “When we took part in the ride last year, we were seeing increasing numbers of children coming into hospital with asthma and really being unable to breathe. A year on we are still in the same situation where people come into emergency departments with dangerously low oxygen levels and we are still seeing some dying of asthma.
“We are coming together with a common purpose, to galvanise and to raise awareness of the impact that the climate emergency and poor air quality can have on our health, and especially the health of children. It is unthinkable that we still have children that are sadly dying of asthma – it is time for action.”
Globally, air pollution kills an estimated 7 million people a year and in the UK it causes an estimated 28,000-36,000 premature deaths a year. In a landmark ruling in December 2020, air pollution was named as a cause on a UK death certificate for the first time, in the case of 9-year-old Ella Adoo Kissi-Debra, with the coroner stating that the adverse effects of air pollution on health are not being sufficiently communicated to patients and their carers by medical and nursing professionals.
Healthcare providers have a key role to play in addressing low public awareness of the health impact of climate crisis and declining air quality.
Newcastle Hospitals is well known for its award-winning Shine (Sustainable Healthcare in Newcastle) programme and was the first healthcare organisation in the world to declare a climate emergency, in recognition that the climate emergency is a health emergency. The Trust is also committed to the ambitious goal of becoming a net-zero carbon organisation by 2030. In 2021, Newcastle Hospitals became the first in the UK to make use of climate friendly gas and air technology after Newcastle mum Kaja Gersinska used it as pain relief during labour.
Most recently the Trust partnered with Global Action Plan to pilot a project aimed at identifying opportunities to drive meaningful change around air quality improvement. As part of this Newcastle Hospitals has committed to ensuring all employees will be given basic sustainability training, that green procurement will be embedded across the organisation. In June 2022 the project formed the basis of an ICS Clean Air Framework which has now available to other ICS regions across the country.
Similar rides are taking place across the country and have been organised by Climate Acceptance Studios.
