RCGP asks Government to widen GP access to green premises grants 

The RCGP has urged the Government to give GP practices more access to decarbonisation schemes for GP premises. 

RCGP chair Professor Victoria Tzortziou Brown has written to secretary of state for Energy Security and Net Zero, Ed Miliband, arguing decarbonising GP premises ‘is essential for meeting the NHS’s ambitious net zero targets’. 

According to the college, GP practices are ‘locked out’ of existing decarbonisation schemes and cannot find ‘room in the practice budget for the upgrades they need to become more sustainable’ without this financial assistance. Green schemes include: 

• The Boiler Upgrade Grant scheme, which just five practices have accessed since it launched in 2022; 

• The Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme including NHS Property Services which manages 1,500 practices in England; 

• Great British Energy investments, which hospitals can access but GP practices cannot. 

It also pointed out that the Public Sector Low Carbon Skills Fund, for public sector bodies to ‘access specialist skills and expertise to support heat decarbonisation’ received no funding allocation this year. 

The letter noted that primary care, which accounts for around a quarter of the NHS’s carbon emissions, includes in its estate a large number of ‘ageing, energy-inefficient buildings with high running costs’.   

‘Our members want to act but when many are struggling to keep their heads above water financially there often isn’t room in the practice budget for the upgrades they need to become more sustainable. Too many practices are falling through the gaps, locked out of existing schemes that only a handful of GP practices are benefitting from. 

‘If we are, rightly, going to invest in making our hospitals greener and more energy efficient, it makes sense to extend this support to GP practices, or we risk leaving the job unfinished’, the letter said. 

‘Taking action to decarbonise GP estates is essential for meeting the NHS’s ambitious net zero targets and lowering running costs for practices, freeing up vital resources for frontline patient care.’ 

The letter cited last year’s GP Voice Survey of more than 600 GP partners which found almost two-thirds (65%) had taken ‘some steps’ to improve sustainability in the last five years.  

‘More substantial improvements’, it said, were being ‘held back by a lack of funding’, with 69% of respondents identifying insufficient capital funding as a key barrier. 

The letter, also addressed to care minister Karin Smyth, that the college ‘would welcome the opportunity’ to meet with the Government on the issue.

A ‘green toolkit’ produced by the Royal College of Physicians (RCP) in 2024 suggested a range of actions doctors can take to ‘help mitigate and adapt to the impacts of climate change’, including reducing ‘unnecessary’ prescribing and blood testing.