The Royal College of Physicians (RCP) has published new survey findings on doctors’ understanding of climate and health, as well as their experiences of delivering sustainable clinical practice.
Between 2-14 June 2025, the RCP carried out its second member snapshot survey of 2025. It included questions about the role of sustainability in physicians’ clinical practice and the impact of climate-related risks on patients and staff. It also asked their view on whether they thought their workplace was prepared for extreme weather events.
The RCP’s snapshot survey showed that of 490 responding UK physicians, 75% said they were concerned about the impacts of climate change on their patients’ health. 14% were not concerned and 11% said they didn't know.
Sustainability in clinical practice
- Most physicians are concerned about the environmental impact of their clinical practice: 69% said they are very or somewhat concerned about the environmental impact of their clinical practice. 20% were neither concerned nor unconcerned, 6% were somewhat unconcerned and 5% were not concerned at all. 1% didn’t know. [487 respondents]
- Sustainability is already playing a role in clinical practice for many physicians: 61% said they consider the environmental impact when making decisions in clinical practice. 31% said they did not, and 8% said they did not know. [495 respondents]
- There are barriers stopping some physicians from delivering more sustainable healthcare: Of those who did not consider environmental impact in clinical decision-making, the most commonly cited responses were lack of knowledge, training and education about how to do this, lack of time and organisational support. [152 responses]
- Physicians are delivering actions recommended in the 2024 Green Physician Toolkit: Respondents were asked to select which actions had undertaken in the previous 3 months. [493 responses]
- 67% switched from IV to oral antibiotics at the earliest opportunity
- 65% offered remote consultations where clinically appropriate
- 53% checked medication adherence in every contact with patients
- 49% worked remotely on non-clinical shifts
- 49% communicated digitally with patients and other healthcare professionals
- 40% offered remote monitoring where clinically appropriate
- 35% avoided single-use plastic, such as PPE, unless clinically necessary
- 31% followed the ‘think twice, check twice, order once’ framework for reducing unnecessary blood testing or diagnostic imaging
- 26% advocated for sustainable practices within their organisation
- 14% advised patients to not flush pills down the toilet, or to return old or unwanted medication and empty packaging to pharmacies
- 9% communicated with patients about climate change or extreme weather events (eg heatwaves)
- 3% said none of the above.
- Time and organisational support were the biggest barriers to undertaking actions in the Green Physician Toolkit: when asked if physicians experienced barriers to undertaking the Toolkit actions, the most common responses were time, organisational support, awareness and understanding about the links between health and climate, training and education. [475 responses]
Preparedness for extreme weather
- Over half of physicians feel confident to help patients to manage health risks imposed by extreme weather, such as heatwaves, cold weather, flooding or air pollution spikes: 13% said they feel very - and 45% somewhat - confident to advise patients about staying well during extreme weather events. 21% said neither, 12% said they were somewhat unconfident, 6% not at all confident and 2% didn’t know. [493 respondents]
- The majority of physicians have not discussed the health effects of climate change with their patients: 76% had never discussed the health effects of climate change with a patient. 18% had, and 7% didn’t know. [486 respondents]
- Physicians don’t feel their workplaces are prepared for extreme weathers: 58% said they feel their workplace is somewhat unprepared or not at all prepared for extreme weather events. 15% said they felt it was neither prepared or unprepared, and 11% said not know. [484 respondents]
If you are a physician and did not get a chance to respond to the survey, but would like to share your experiences with the RCP, please contact policy@rcp.ac.uk.
The RCP’s second snapshot survey of 2025 covered a range of topics. It was open from 2-14 June 2025.
The findings from the same snapshot survey on obesity, smoking and alcohol harms are available here.
The survey was sent to 18,808 clinically active UK members and fellows via email. The total number of responses to each question is given in brackets at the end of the paragraph.