Public hospitals could save an electrifying amount

The report was officially launched at a gathering of healthcare professionals at Parliament House on Thursday, August 13. Titled All-Electric Healthy Hospitals: a Cost-Benefit Analysis, it found that electrifying 10% of Australia’s public hospitals every year from 2027 until 2036 would save $59 million per year in hospital energy bills.

It would also lead to a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to taking nearly 150,000 petrol cars off the roads.

Co-Founder of Healthy Futures, Dr Harry Jennens, believes the energy security of hospitals is paramount while the reliability of gas supplies is vulnerable.

“If hospitals aren’t beholden to the volatile global price shocks of expensive fossil gas, they’ll have more money to invest in what’s most important – patient care,” he says.

“In Lithgow a few years ago a shutdown in the gas supply forced a hospital to postpone surgeries and patients faced delays in receiving care.”

The healthcare industry accounts for approximately 7% of Australia’s domestic carbon footprint, with a third of this pollution produced by public hospitals. One third of energy used in Australian public hospitals is derived from burning fossil gas.

The report showcases Imperial College Healthcare (part of the NHS Trust) as an international example of successfully implementing electrification. The Trust began a £120 million decarbonisation program in 2021, and estimates that once completed the result will be a 43% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions from heating, cooling and powering hospital buildings and equipment, representing a saving of 20,233 tonnes of CO₂e (carbon dioxide equivalent) per year.

The report found that electrifying Australia’s public hospitals would reduce hospital operational costs and protect hospitals’ value, and could prevent public hospitals from becoming stranded assets.

Dr Simon Judkins is an Emergency Physician and Director of Emergency at Echuca Hospital, and has seen the health impacts of extreme weather events firsthand.

He believes climate change is a public health emergency and hospitals and healthcare workers are on the frontline of it.

“Our hospitals have to operate in increasingly frequent and severe extreme weather events,” he says.

“We need to ensure that hospitals aren’t contributing to this worsening situation by relying on fossil fuels.

“Electrifying our hospitals would save nearly $60 million a year, but what about the cost if we don’t take this opportunity? What will the costs to our healthcare system be if more frequent and more severe extreme weather events happen that our hospital infrastructure is not equipped for?”

The All-Electric Healthy Hospitals campaign seeks $1.5 million in funding from the Federal Government to invest in feasibility studies for a nine-hospital electrification pilot program. The nine hospitals proposed in the pilot cover different climates and metro, regional and remote areas across every state and territory. 

The report is available to read here.

Feature image courtesy of fernando zhiminaicela from Pixabay

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