Quitting gas, going electric could save public hospitals millions

Electrifying Australia’s public hospitals could save $59 million a year in energy costs, cut carbon emissions, and ultimately keep more people out of hospital, a study has found. 

But the government would need to act quickly as the upgrades could take a decade to roll out and two decades to deliver economic returns. 

Not-for-profit group Healthy Futures will release the findings in Canberra on Thursday at a launch with groups representing 400,000 health care workers.

The event comes after research found the health care sector accounted for seven per cent of Australia’s carbon emissions, and one third of energy used to power public hospitals came from gas. 

Electrifying health care facilities is an issue Healthy Futures has been pursuing for two years in a bid to lower their carbon emissions, co-founder and GP Dr Harry Jennens said. 

”As hospital and healthcare workers, we don’t want to be contributing to our biggest global health problem,” he told AAP.

”We started crunching some numbers, finding hospitals which were really interested in this, and looking at worldwide examples of hospitals which had done it before.”

The group contracted engineering firm Lucid Consulting to analyse the costs and benefits of switching public hospitals from gas to electric systems for heating buildings and water. 

It found upgrading the nation’s hospitals over a decade would cost about $131 million a year, but would deliver significant savings. 

At the end of the project in 2037, hospitals would deliver energy bill savings of $59.3 million and cut 312,050 tonnes of carbon each year, equivalent to taking more than 147,000 petrol cars off the road. 

The investment would also deliver a net economic benefit by 2047, the All-Electric Healthy Hospitals report found. 

Savings could be maximised by upgrading hospitals with ageing gas equipment first, while reducing emissions would help prevent the rising temperatures putting patients under stress, Dr Jennens said. 

”We’re looking at significant health impacts already but escalating over the course of this century and beyond,” he said. 

”This is one way that the health sector can reduce that pollution, reduce that burden of disease and help keep people out of hospital.”

Representatives from 10 organisations representing doctors, nurses, psychiatrists, surgeons and specialists will launch the report in Parliament House, calling on the government to commit $1.5 million for a feasibility study of nine hospital upgrades. 

Transforming the health care system would secure better outcomes for patients, Australian Midwifery and Nursing Federation federal assistant secretary Catelyn Richards said.

”The proposed pilot will create public hospitals that are better equipped to lower their energy bills, strengthen their energy security, and stay connected in extreme weather events,” she said. 

”It enables nurses, midwives and healthcare workers to keep doing what they do every day: protecting and caring for every person in Australia.”

Source: AAP