I attended a recent meeting of the London NHS Travel Network which promotes the development and uptake of travel plans among NHS Trusts, as well as healthy lifestyles through walking and cycling schemes and sustainable forms of transport such as car clubs, car sharing and public transport use. 

The National Health Service is responsible for 5% of all journeys in England (80% of which are by car).  Transport is responsible for 17% of all NHS carbon emissions.  Moreover, half of all men and two-thirds of women are overweight or obese.  So there are good reasons for getting both patients and staff out of their cars.  Most measures to this end are ‘soft’, aimed at influencing behaviours and therefore of uncertain impact.  One ‘hard’ measure is to control hospital parking.  But patients and their relatives complain about the cost of hospital parking, and the doctors threaten to work elsewhere if their free parking is denied them.  The position is similar to that of cities that are nervous about reducing parking space, or increasing its cost, or introducing congestion charging, in case nearby cities that don’t adopt such measures gain trade from mobile shoppers.  The health sector is different, however, in that there is more scope for agreeing an area-wide policy on hospital parking.  This would be a test of seriousness of intent to make an impact on NHS carbon emissions.

I was pleased to hear a presentation from Adrian Davis, who is, possibly uniquely, a transport specialist working in the NHS (in Bristol).  He compiles evidence of the benefits of walking and cycling in the form of succinct briefs, 52 at present count.  An excellent source.