During the 2022 NHS Education for Scotland annual conference, delegates agreed that healthcare leaders should do more to support sustainable medicine use and prescribing. According to delegates, environmentally sustainable prescribing should be a primary feature of postgraduate and undergraduate health care education.

There is no current requirement for environmentally sustainable prescribing, under the General Pharmaceutical Council’s standards for the initial training and education of pharmacists, to be taught on the MPharm degree. However, 97% of poll attendees, during a session on ‘Taking Climate Action — reducing environmental harm from prescribing medicines’ on 28 April 2022, agreed that sustainable prescribing should be rooted into education.

“The 2022 NHS Education for Scotland annual conference delegates agree that healthcare leaders should do more to support sustainable medicine use and prescribing.“

Director for Scotland at RPS, Clare Morrison, stated: “[It's] vital that we take action on environmental sustainability and we heard a clear message today that health professions need more education to be able to take action. I am delighted that the RPS is working jointly with the Scottish Academy of Medical Royal Colleges to try to achieve change.”