Frome Medical Practice has once again been awarded the status of being the top performing Practice nationally for Green Impact work for the third consecutive year. They are also one of two practices to be awarded the Gold Plus award by the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) and the National Union of Students.

The award covers a wide range of areas which support sustainability. These include a focus on staff and patient well being, recycling, energy use, and procurement.

Practice Manager Karen Creffield said, "The work we have done has been a real team effort and has involved collaboration with Frome Town Council and other partners. We have been delighted to have been able to offer two virtual work placements this month to Medical Students from the Centre of Sustainable Health Care. They have been working on developing some literature to help support patients reduce medication where appropriate."

"With the NHS announcing its commitment to be the first National Health Service world wide to reach Net Zero Carbon by 2050 we will hopefully see more changes in the sector."

In awarding the practice, Professor Terry Kemple of the RCGP commented, "Congratulations to Frome Medical Practice for gaining its Gold Plus Award and being the Overall Winner of the 2019/20 UK Award for Building A Sustainable General Practice. This is the third year in a row that Frome has won this award and shown other general practices what can be done. The standards set for achieving this award get harder each year as we aim towards a net zero carbon general practice and NHS."

What has been really encouraging for the practice is seeing how many more practices are now following their lead in adopting more sustainable ways of working. At the start of the year over 700 practices were actively engaged. The Somerset Clinical Commissioning Group has also led the way by making a commitment to achieving the Bronze Award part of mainstream service delivery for all Somerset GP Practices from October.

For more information about the work being done to reduce their impact on the environment, please visit the practice website at www.fromemedicalpractice.co.uk/sustainability

(Please note that the photo used in conjunction with this news update was taken at the Green Impact for Health Conference held in February 2020, prior to coronavirus.)