Time for a culture change

One problem that besets the NHS is a culture which assumes that everyone can and should travel everywhere by car.¹ Many NHS organisations provide travel directions for visitors that are of use only to car drivers, and many NHS job descriptions stipulate car ownership as a matter of course when it is patently unnecessary.

Senior managers who make decisions around travel policies generally don’t use public transport, cycle, or walk. As a result they don’t understand the alternative transport agenda or the benefits that promoting sustainable transport can bring. There is a knee-jerk reaction that assumes sustainable development will cost money, whereas many initiatives, especially transport related ones, can actually save the NHS money, while also benefiting employees and the community through reduced pollution. Only corporate inertia prevents these ideas from taking root in NHS culture.

A recent survey by Spokes—the NHS Cycling Network—showed that 56% of NHS trusts pay only the bare minimum (AfC/Whitley required) cycle mileage rate to employees who use their bicycles for work journeys, although this is less than a third of the government’s tax-free limit (6.2 p/mile as opposed to 20 p/mile) (www.networks.nhs.uk/networks/page/1170). Furthermore 22% of NHS trusts pay below the minimum, apparently unsure what “minimum” means. Many trusts are reluctant to instigate the government’s “Cycle to Work” scheme for tax-free bicycle purchases, despite requests from staff. Promoting cycling among staff is one of the simplest, cheapest, most cost effective measures that any trust can take to reduce its carbon footprint, yet many are resistant to the idea, still viewing employees who cycle as some sort of eccentric fringe.

Until promotion and support of sustainable development is made a centrally imposed requirement of NHS employers, such incentives as exist (minor things like saving money and promoting public health) will have little effect.