What is the Clean Air Hospital Framework?

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First launched in 2019 by Global Action Plan and Great Ormond Street Hospital, The Clean Air Hospital Framework (CAHF) is a strategy for improving air quality in and around hospitals. The aim is to create a healthier environment for staff, patients, their families, and the local community.

Key Areas of the Clean Air Hospital Framework

The framework focuses on seven key areas to tackle air pollution:

  • Travel
  • Procurement and supply chain
  • Construction
  • Energy
  • Local air quality
  • Communication and training
  • Hospital outreach and leadership

How To Use the Clean Air Hospital Framework

Hospital managers can go through each section of the framework and assess their hospital’s activities against a specific criteria. The end result is a score out of 1,079. Score 50-70% and your rating is “good”. Score over 70% and your rating is “excellent”. Anything below 50% suggests that there’s still a lot of work to be done!

Travel

This section concerns how staff, visitors and patients travel to and around the hospital. It focuses on:

  • Hospital travel planning – providing information and encouraging greener journeys.
  • Walking and cycling infrastructure and facilities.
  • Zero emission vehicle infrastructure.
  • Patient transport and ambulances.
  • Routes to minimise travel.
  • Monitoring and reporting.

Procurement and Supply Chain

This section is all about the choices you make around purchasing, as well as your relationships with suppliers, and the way they deliver their materials.

It focuses on:

  • Procurement and supply chain management.
  • Internal ordering.
  • Items purchased.

Design and Construction

This section considers building layout, material choices, building site traffic, and construction site impacts. It focuses on:

  • Design, including on-site green spaces.
  • Building materials and equipment.
  • Construction and demolition sites.

Energy

How does your hospital generate, procure, and store energy? This section focuses on:

  • Combined Heat and Power (CHP) units and onsite boilers.
  • Electricity procurement and generation.

Local air Quality

This section is all about how your hospital monitors onsite air quality, and the steps you take to improve it. It focuses on:

  • Air quality monitoring.
  • Plant life.
  • Smoking regulations.

Communication and Training

Are you training your staff to think about their role in improving air quality? Do you provide advice to patients? Are you engaging the hospital board, and sharing information across the hospital?

This section focuses on:

  • Clinical advice.
  • Engaging patients.
  • Board level commitment.
  • Communication within the hospital.

Hospital Outreach and Leadership

The final section asks you to consider how your hospital can amplify its impact to reduce air pollution in the local area and beyond. This section focuses on:

  • Community engagement.
  • Influencing for change.

Complete the Clean Air Hospital Framework

You can access the gull CAHF guidance on the Action For Clean Air site. The guidance contains a full breakdown of the scoring system, along with details of the various criteria to focus on when assessing your current activities. There’s also room for outlining your action plan for any areas that need improvement.

Head here to access the Clean Air Hospital Framework Guidance.

Monitoring and Testing Air Quality

To find out more about testing your air quality, read our recent article on how to test indoor air quality in hospitals.

We also offer bespoke air quality monitoring services for hospitals and other healthcare settings. We can monitor your staff’s exposure to any potentially harmful substances. This will help you understand your risk levels, so you can devise an air quality solution that works for you. Find out more about air quality and exposure limit monitoring in the workplace.

How to Improve Your Hospital’s Local Air Quality

Section five of the CAHF invites you to consider how your hospital monitors onsite air quality, and the steps you take to improve it.

We have a range of air purifiers designed for hospitals and healthcare settings which play an important role in minimising the risks of air pollution in wards and waiting rooms in hospitals where air pollution from vehicles breach legal limits.

Explore our range of air purifiers for healthcare settings.