Topic

Average travel time and emissions_GP vs pharmacy

Melissa  Pegg
Melissa Pegg • 23 August 2023

Dear Network, 

Does anyone have the following information please or know of someone who might be able to help access this data (published if possible)?

 

  • The average time taken to travel to the GP vs pharmacy
  • The average emissions associated per trip to the GP and pharmacy

Many thanks

Kind regards

Mel

Comments (2)

Nuala Hampson
Nuala Hampson

Hi Melissa,
can you clarify the first point? The carbon footprint of travel to pharmacy versus GP will be based on distance. In England, most GP practices will have a pharmacy very nearby, sometimes in the building!
Community pharmacies are generally considered the most accessible healthcare provider.
BMJ article https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/4/8/e005764

Research from Pharmcy2U (an online pharmacy so definite bias to be aware of!) https://www.pharmacy2u.co.uk/news/health/news/how-far-do-people-travel-…

There is carbon emission data in this document on the SusQI website https://www.susqi.org/templates (in the Measure the Impacts section) on GP appointments but not pharmacy visits.
Nuala

Melissa  Pegg
Melissa Pegg

Dear Nuala, I hope you are well. I am very grateful for your help. My colleague is going to clarify the first point - now that you have pointed it out I am not sure why she is asking that either. The research question is: looking at the benefits of encouraging people to buy medication directly from the pharmacy rather than the GP for conditions that could be self-treated (such as colds, period pains, headaches etc). The idea of the project is to try and quantify how many unnecessary GP appointments are held each year. Might you have any other ideas about how to tackle this from a sustainability impact perspective? Many thanks, kind regards, Mel


Please log in or sign up to comment.