Hundreds of international nurses are now settling in Hull after finding rewarding careers in East Yorkshire.

Hull University Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust began an international recruitment campaign almost five years ago to offer internationally educated nurses the chance to work in East Yorkshire.

Since then, 316 nurses, mainly from the Philippines but also from Nepal, have started working at Hull Royal Infirmary and Castle Hill Hospital.

And once they arrive in Hull, they’re happy to stay. Our retention rate for overseas nurses is 97 per cent, meaning they’re enjoying working for the trust and living in East Yorkshire.

Karen Mechen, Practice Development Matron for Nursing Workforce and Education, leads the team of Clinical Nurse Educators who support the international recruits to meet UK nursing standards.

She said: “We began our international recruitment programme in August 2017 and, since then, we have recruited a total of 316 nurses. We’re preparing for the arrival of a further 20 in a few weeks.

“These nurses go on to work in every area of our hospitals, from oncology and theatres to critical care and elderly medicine. They are a fantastic asset and we’re really lucky to have them here to look after our patients.”

HUTH works with recruitment agency Resource Finder to review and approve applications to find the right staff to work in East Yorkshire’s hospitals.

Overseas nursing staff have to pass an International English Language Testing System (IELTS) and a computer-based test to ensure their communication skills are of a very high standard before they fly to England in groups of around 20 at a time.

A highly experienced team of Clinical Nurse Educators assess the skills of the new recruits as part of an intensive three-week training course at HUTH’s dedicated training facility, Suite 22, at Castle Hill.

Using the suite’s mock ‘wards’, the overseas nurses are trained in assessing, planning, implementing and evaluating nursing care in line with UK standards. The international nurses are also trained in medicines management and a range of around 10 clinical skills from injections and delivery of IV fluids to resuscitation.

When their in-house training has been completed, the international nurses then sit the Objective Standard Clinical Examination (OSCE), designed by the Nursing and Midwifery Council to ensure all applicants meet practical nursing standards. All overseas nursing recruits must pass the OSCE within 12 weeks of arriving in the UK and then receive their nursing PIN numbers, entitling them to work as fully qualified nurses in the UK.

Two birth partners will be able to accompany a woman in labour from next week as part of Hull’s hospitals plan to adapt to life with Covid-19.

Hull University Teaching Hospitals (HUTH) NHS Trust is easing restrictions put in place at the start of the pandemic as community infection rates continue to decline.

From Monday, April 18, women in active labour can now be accompanied by two birth partners on the Labour Ward at Hull Women and Children’s Hospital and at the Fatima Allam Birth Centre.

Lorraine Cooper, Head of Midwifery at HUTH, said rules introduced at the start of the pandemic to protect women and babies in our care and staff had been kept under constant review.

She said: “We thank families for their patience and understanding.

“Two birth partners can accompany women in labour from Monday thanks to the protection offered by the vaccine combined with the fall in infection rates.

“While the current variant does appear to be more infectious than previous variants, we now know it is causing less severe illness in the majority of people who contract the disease.

“Despite the introduction of two birth partners, we ask that all birth partners and visitors continue to wear masks and follow the instructions by staff on all of our wards.”

Despite the new arrangements, birth partners should not attempt to accompany a woman in labour if they are showing any symptoms of Covid-19 or are unwell for any other reason.

Visiting restrictions were eased in other parts of Hull’s hospitals outside maternity services in February to allow one family member or friend to visit a patient in most parts of Hull Royal Infirmary and Castle Hill Hospital. Visiting slots of one hour must be booked in advance with the ward sister or charge nurse and the visitor must be the same person for the duration of the patient’s stay in hospital.

The named visitor must also carry out a lateral flow test to prevent people with the virus coming to hospital and spreading the potentially deadly virus to already sick and injured patients.

Rules were also amended for parents of children undergoing care and treatment on Acorn and Ward 130

Two parents or carers can now visit their child at the same time for up to an hour a day and a parent or carer staying on the ward with their child can swap with the child’s second parent or carer if required.

Further visits – such as those on compassionate grounds or following a life-changing diagnosis – will continue to be considered on an individual basis.

Patients with suspected or confirmed Covid-19 cannot have visitors unless in exceptional circumstances.

Restrictions remain for oncology wards in the Queen’s Centre and in some surgical wards because these patients are at much higher risk of becoming gravely ill if they catch Covid-19. Please check arrangements with ward staff before attempting to visit.

Anyone coming to hospital for any reason must also wear a face masks as soon as they enter any hospital building although the requirement to wear a face mask on hospital grounds has been lifted.

All visitors should wash their hands thoroughly when they walk into a ward, use hand sanitizer when they leave their relative’s bedside and wash their hands for at least 20 seconds as they leave the ward. People should also follow the two-metre social distancing rule on hospital grounds and in our buildings.

Hospital managers in Hull are reaching out to former P&O workers to consider a career in health.

Just like the crew of the North Sea ferries, the NHS is no stranger to timetables, to keeping people happy, to managing resources and problem solving on a daily basis.

That’s why hospital teams are now looking to former ferry workers to help fill more than 30 clinical administration vacancies plus many other roles across Castle Hill and Hull Royal Infirmary.

Melanie Leedham, Head of Patient Administration for Hull University Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, says:

“We all felt for the staff of P&O after we heard the recent news about job losses. Many of the crew had spent the best part of their careers with the company, and at a time when the cost of living just seems to keep going up, it must have been a real blow for them.

“While nothing can quite make up for that, we’re confident that many of those who now find themselves without a job will have transferrable skills which would be really well suited to the NHS.”

Melanie manages the Trust’s Clinical Administration Service, a 900-strong team which collectively provides the support that hospital doctors, nurses and other clinical teams need to provide great care to patients. She continues:

“So many people see the NHS as just doctors and nurses, but the clinical admin team provides essential behind-the-scenes and front-of-house support for staff and patients, helping to ensure our wards, theatres and clinics all run smoothly. From customer service and administration to IT and data entry, we have lots of different roles to suit a range of different skills at both Hull Royal Infirmary and Castle Hill.”

The Clinical Administration Service will celebrate the upcoming Administrative Professionals Day on 27 April with a high profile online campaign; a pre-cursor to an open recruitment day in May where details of all current admin vacancies will be up for discussion. Interviews will also be held on the day for the right candidates. Examples of current vacancies within the Trust include a full time receptionist at the Queen’s Centre, Castle Hill, and a part time senior administrator for the outpatients service at Hull Royal Infirmary.

Melanie continues:

“Our Trust is a very flexible employer so we can offer a variety of full and part time roles, as well as different working hours and shift patterns to help staff achieve that all-important work life balance. We also offer full training for the right candidates, and there’s a whole programme of staff events, staff support and health and wellbeing initiatives going on behind the scenes too.”

NHS workers receive a number of enviable benefits including a generous pension scheme and up to 33 days’ annual leave per year plus Bank Holidays¹. NHS staff also enjoy access to discounts from a wealth of local and national retailers², plus local hospital workers can take advantage of free or discounted travel to and from work and around the city³.

For more information on the upcoming Clinical Administration Service open recruitment day, follow Hull Hospitals on social media – www.facebook.com/joinhullhospitals or www.twitter.com/hullhospitals

Details of all current job vacancies with Hull University Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust can be found at www.joinhullhospitals.co.uk

Notes

1. Annual leave allowance for directly employed NHS workers (with the exception of very senior managers and staff within the remit of the Doctors’ and Dentists’ Review Body) is set nationally and is based on full time hours (pro rata for part time):

• 0-5 years’ service – 27 days’ leave plus Bank Holidays
• 5-10 years’ service – 29 days’ leave plus Bank Holidays
• 10+ years’ service – 33 days’ leave plus Bank Holidays

Full details at https://www.nhsemployers.org/publications/tchandbook

2. Blue Light Card and HealthServiceDiscounts.com are among those offering discounts with national and online retailers for NHS staff. Other locally negotiated benefits are also available to local NHS staff such as discounted gym membership/corporate leisure schemes with the Hull and East Riding local authorities.
3. Hull Hospitals staff can travel for free anywhere on the 63 and 154 bus routes between HRI and Castle Hill Hospital, and can also use the Priory Park & Ride service between Priory Park (Hessle) and Hull Royal Infirmary for free. Hospital staff wishing to travel by bus can also take advantage of the Hull SmartCommute card, which offers discounted monthly travel on both Stagecoach and East Yorkshire services in and around Hull.

People living in the Londesborough Street and Anlaby Road areas of Hull are among those being asked for their views on proposals to redevelop and redesign the area.

New hospital wards, car parking options, more green space and safer cycling routes are among the ideas being put forward in a new Masterplan covering the Hull Royal Infirmary site and surrounding streets.

Hull University Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust is seeking to develop facilities on the HRI site, creating purpose-built inpatient wards that will replace the outdated wards in the Hull Royal Infirmary tower block. The plans also involve re-purposing some of the vacated space in the tower block for non-clinical use.

The work would form part of a wider masterplan, developed with Hull City Council,  which could open up opportunities for new developments on the current Argyle Street car park, such as new housing for hospital staff or a multi-storey car park. Proposals also suggest that, over the next 15 years, the nature of the Anlaby Road area could change significantly, making the route greener and more environmentally friendly to make it more attractive to users, encouraging more staff and visitors to travel other than by car.

The local authority and the Trust are now urging hospital staff, patients and visitors, local residents, landowners, business owners and anyone else with an interest in the future of the area to review the plans and feed back their thoughts.

In a joint statement, Trust chief executive Chris Long and Councillor Daren Hale, Leader of Hull City Council, said:

“This programme is an important part of improving healthcare for local people, so that is why your NHS and local authority are working together in partnership.

“The masterplan will be underpinned by funding from central government. This will help us to achieve significant and much needed investment in healthcare provision, serving people that live in the city and beyond. Our key objective is to improve the health and wellbeing of people in our communities, ensuring that any development is visually, environmentally and user friendly.”

The draft masterplan is available to view by following the link from the council web page.

Feedback must be provided using the form on the Hull City Council website or in writing to:
HRI Masterplan, Hull City Council Planning Services, The Guildhall, Alfred Gelder Street, HU1 2AA, or email: dev.control@hullcc.gov.uk.

Closing date for responses: Monday 2 May 2022.

If you don’t work in the field, you may wonder what Hull has ever done to shape healthcare beyond the East Yorkshire boundary.

But cast your mind back not too long ago, to when infectious disease consultants and their teams at Castle Hill Hospital were among the first ever to trial new Covid-19 vaccines, and you start to realise that Hull plays more than just a bit part when it comes to pioneering medical research.

Friday 8^th April marks the start of RDI Week: Research, Development and Innovation; a week where local health professionals, academics, research teams and practising clinicians come together to celebrate the city’s collective achievements and promote ongoing research which has the potential to transform lives.

Professor Thozhukat Sathyapalan

From being the first UK trust to perform mitral valve surgery to pioneering the use of robotic surgery in treating prostate and other cancers, Hull boasts a research record to be proud of, and one which is only getting stronger.

Professor Thozhukat Sathyapalan, Director of RDI for Hull University Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, says:

“Research and development is a part of our work which patients don’t always get to see but which has a huge impact on people’s treatment and people’s lives, not just here but across the country and even across the globe. It’s not just about finding treatments, it’s about asking questions, trying new things, really understanding a disease or condition, and then empowering patients to work with us to develop solutions.

“Working together with the University of Hull and Hull York Medical School, we have some 450 studies going on in our area at any one time. These are supported by 65 key staff working across 27 different specialties, including many areas where Hull and East Yorkshire already excels, such as oncology and haematology; respiratory; metabolic and endocrine; renal; paediatrics; gastroenterology and hepatology;, vascular; and infectious diseases.

“What’s more, our track record combined with our cutting edge research facilities continue to get us noticed, enabling us to attract high quality research colleagues to continue putting Hull on the map and further cementing our international reputation as a leader in healthcare and biomedical research.”

Among the latest local facilities to open is the Allam Diabetes Centre on the Hull Royal Infirmary site (pictured, left). Generously supported with a £3m donation from local businessman and philanthropist, Dr Assem Allam, the facility includes a whole floor dedicated to supporting research into the fields of diabetes and endocrinology.

RDI Week will be promoted with an online campaign showcasing the work of local research teams and the difference which the people of Hull and East Yorkshire; both research teams and trial participants; make to others across the world. It will kick off with a special Celebration of Research event at the University of Hull this Friday 8 April, where leading academics and clinicians such as Dr Michael Crooks of the nationally acclaimed SENTINEL programme and Dr Lynsey Corless, recently appointed as the NIHR’s National Specialty Lead for Hepatology Research, will be speaking.

Professor Paul Hagan, Dean of the University of Hull’s Faculty of Health Sciences, said:

“In partnership with Hull University Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, the University of Hull’s Faculty of Health Sciences and Hull York Medical School are working collaboratively to drive advances in healthcare in our region. Collectively, we are addressing inequalities in health outcomes and tackling healthcare challenges.

“This week, alongside Hull University Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust and our industry partners, we are highlighting some of the world-leading collaborative health and social care research and innovation which is underway here in Hull.

“In line with the University’s new Strategy for 2030, we have a focus on partnership, people and place. Our groundbreaking research is designed to lead to improvements in the health and wellbeing of the people of Hull and ultimately people across the UK and beyond.

“This life-changing research to improve healthcare in our region is complemented by the teaching and development of our students who will shape the healthcare workforce of the future.

“We are extremely proud of the vital contribution that our graduates and staff make to the health of the region.”

For more information on RDI Week and the work of the research teams working across Hull University Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, the University of Hull and Hull York Medical School, visit www.hull.nhs.uk/research

A project designed to improve hospital green space, offset carbon emissions and teach children the importance of the environment is underway at Castle Hill Hospital.

School pupils from Westfield Primary School, Hallgate School in Cottingham and Walkington Primary School visited the site earlier today to take part in a large-scale tree planting exercise.

Hull University Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust has kindly been provided with 1,000 saplings for the hospital site by NHS Forest and the Centre for Sustainable Healthcare. The expectation is that by 2030, the trees will grow to absorb 40 tonnes of carbon, rising to 150 tonnes within 30 years. The project is part of the hospital trust’s ‘Zero30’ ambitions to become carbon neutral by the start of 2030.

Head of Sustainability, Marc Beaumont, explains why it was important to get local schools involved:

“What we do today will directly impact the people around us and future generations to come.

“Hull University Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust is a major employer in the area but we are also a major contributor of carbon emissions, so we feel it’s our responsibility to act on climate change now for the benefit of our staff, our patients, our wider community and the planet as whole.

“We have set ambitious plans to become carbon neutral across all our hospital sites by 2030, and the solar field opposite Castle Hill is one example of how we’re looking to use more renewable energy. Offsetting is also another key strand of our work, and in the first instance this will involve planting 1,000 trees on the Castle Hill Hospital site.

“Without doubt, some of the pupils who have visited us today will go on to become our patients and our workforce of the future. By involving local schools in the tree planting project now, we hope to spark interest in environmental issues and to help pupils connect with their local environment in a way that will see them continue to care for it in the years and decades to come.”

Pupils were each given the opportunity to plant a tree to expand existing woodland in the north east area of the site, and to mark their tree with a biodegradable tag. They received a short talk on the importance of green space to our environment along with a special Zero30 pin badge from the hospital as a thank you for their participation.

Among those planting trees were Year 2 pupils from nearby Walkington Primary School. The school benefited from the generosity of East Yorkshire buses, who kindly donated a special bus service for pupils to ensure they could be transported to the planting session and back in an environmentally thoughtful way.

Mr Bullough, Headteacher at Walkington Primary School says:

“We are absolutely delighted to have been involved in this project.  Young children are increasingly aware of the importance of the actions we all need to take to provide future generations with a sustainable global and local environment, and our curriculum is constantly changing to reflect this.

“After being limited in terms of off-site visits for the last couple of years, bringing the children out to activities where they can get hands-on and learn what other organisations are doing to positively shape the future is both important and memorable.”

A Hull-based project designed to improve outcomes for asthma patients and reduce climate change has been shortlisted for a national award

A Hull-based team seeking to reduce the environmental impact of asthma care and deliver better outcomes for patients has been recognised for its work.

The SENTINEL project, spearheaded by Hull University Teaching Hospitals working with NHS Hull CCG, Hull York Medical School, Hull University and AstraZeneca, has been shortlisted for ‘Environmental Sustainability Project of the Year’ at the Health Service Journal’s 2022 Partnership Awards.

At the heart of the project is the basic principle of good clinical education, encouraging clinicians and the region’s 40,000 asthma patients to manage their condition proactively to reduce asthma attacks and reduce the environmental impact of asthma and its treatment.

Since it began in 2020, over the course of the project SENTINEL has saved the equivalent of 424 metric tonnes (approx.) of carbon emissions or, put more simply, around 530 transatlantic flights from Leeds to New York.

Dr Michael Crooks

Dr Michael Crooks, lead for the SENTINEL project, senior clinical lecturer at Hull York Medical School and respiratory consultant based at Castle Hill Hospital explains:

“Most asthma patients use two inhalers; a ‘preventer’ inhaler which is used to control the condition and prevent acute attacks, and a blue ‘reliever’ inhaler which is used to temporarily relieve symptoms.

“Overuse of reliever inhalers is known to indicate poor asthma control and is a sign that person is at increased risk of having an asthma attack. These blue reliever inhalers are typically metered dose inhalers (MDIs), the type of inhaler with the greatest impact on the environment, making up 70% of the carbon footprint of all inhalers in the UK.

“At the start of the project, Hull and East Yorkshire were among the biggest prescribers of blue reliever inhalers in the country.  We could see that there was a potential benefit to be had for patients’ health in reducing reliance on these devices, but that there would be a significant environmental benefit too.

“Working together with hospital colleagues, those from primary care and the University, we designed a package of measures to help reduce reliance on blue inhalers in asthma. These measures included providing education for both patients and prescribing clinicians, reviews for asthma patients and real time data monitoring, but crucial to our success was the promotion and use of Maintenance and Reliever Therapy (MART) for appropriate patients. MART is an approach to treating asthma that uses the same inhaler as both the preventer and reliever. This approach is well known to reduce the risk of asthma attacks and has the potential to reduce the need for blue reliever inhalers and the environmental impact of asthma and its treatment.”

Dr Crooks continues:

“The outcomes to date have been really positive; just taking our first primary care network as an example, following the implementation of SENTINEL they went from being among the top 5% of reliever prescribers nationally to below the national average in the space of just three months.

“Collectively, across all participating practices to date, we have seen 15,154 fewer blue inhalers issued as a result of this project, equating to an approximate carbon footprint saving of 424 metric tonnes and this figure doesn’t take into account further potential benefits from also using preventer inhalers with lower environmental impact.

“In reducing over-reliance on reliever inhalers we hope to have brought more people’s asthma under control and reduced the number of people suffering asthma attacks. These are outcomes that we are continuing to evaluate as the project continues.

“We believe that this is the first project of its kind in the UK where a programme has been designed and implemented at scale to help reduce the environmental impact of a disease and its treatment at the same time as achieving better clinical outcomes for our patients, and that’s what makes us really proud.”

Owing to the ongoing success of the SENTINEL project, it is now being adopted by more GP practices in the Hull and East Yorkshire area, while SENTINEL Plus has also been developed to enable the programme to be further rolled out across the UK.

SENTINEL is one of just three finalists vying for the title of ‘Environmental Sustainability Project of the Year’ at the 2022 HSJ Partnership Awards, and the winner will be revealed at a special ceremony taking place in London tonight.

For more information on the SENTINEL project visit https://hullasthma.co.uk/

Hull University Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust has teamed up with some of the city’s biggest names to further its ambitions to become carbon neutral by 2030.

The Trust, which runs Hull Royal Infirmary and Castle Hill Hospital in Cottingham, has joined ‘Oh Yes! Net Zero’, the Hull Net Zero Collaborative which seeks to deliver a low carbon economy with the support of local business, organisations and individuals.

Now joining the likes of Reckitt, the University of Hull, CBI and Cranswick plc, the Trust is reinforcing its commitment to reduce its carbon footprint and work with colleagues across both public and private sectors to create a greener city for all.

Chris Long, chief executive of Hull University Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust says:

“Our trust is one of the biggest employers in Hull, with over 10,000 staff and a range of services which operate round-the-clock.

“We know that we could achieve significant levels of carbon reduction on our own, and have ambitious plans to do so, but the pace at which we can deliver that, with the support and insight of partners across the city, now makes this infinitely more achievable.”

The Trust’s £4.5m ‘Field of Dreams’, consisting of 11,000 solar panels, is already in place in Cottingham and has started to generate electricity for the Castle Hill Hospital site. As part of its ZeroThirty ambitions, the Trust has committed to achieving a number of additional self-made targets, including:

• Sending nothing to landfill by 2025
• Reducing anaesthetic gas emissions by 50 per cent by 2025
• Cutting building emissions in half by 2028

Dr Kim Caines, an anaesthetic registrar for the Trust, says:

“There are so many opportunities within surgery and surgical theatres to reduce our environmental impact, from the types of gases we use to disposal of waste and much more.

“Anaesthetic gases make up 2% of all NHS emissions, which might not sound like a lot but is actually huge. Consider how many operations are carried out across the health service every day, and then consider that one of our anaesthetic gases, desflurane, has the same global warming effect as burning 440kg of coal in just one bottle. The scale of the problem really is huge, but reducing just some of our anaesthetic gas usage could really benefit the world around us.”

Chris Long (centre) visits the Trust’s £4.5m ‘Field of Dreams’ with President of COP26, Rt Alok Sharma MP (left) and Alex Best, Head of Capital

Chris adds:

“Forty per cent of all carbon emissions in the NHS come from acute trusts like ours, and that comes in many forms, from transporting food and heating our wards to washing bed linen, sedating patients and staff travel to work.

“If we’re going to safeguard our city and our environment for the generations to come, we have to see beyond the here and now. For a challenge as big as climate change, we know every little helps, but we also know there’s strength in numbers, and we’re really proud to be part of this emerging and exciting movement for change.”

Patty O’Hayer, Reckitt’s Global Head of External Communications & Affairs adds:

“Our aim with Oh Yes! is to encourage collaboration and knowledge sharing to accelerate Hull’s progress toward net zero. Cooperation is vital. Businesses, working alone, can’t get us there. Nor can local authorities. We need everyone in the city to buy into the plan and work together: companies large and small; hospitals and schools; children, adults, families. Only a collective effort will do it.”

Organisations and individuals across the city region are all being asked to sign up and support the campaign via www.ohyesnetzero.co.uk and to follow the new social media channels @ohyesnetzero for the latest tips and advice about reducing carbon emissions at home and work.

Work on a wall mural to commemorate the work of NHS staff during the pandemic begins this week.

The 13m x 14m (42 x 46 foot) mural of a nurse in PPE will grace the side of Hull and East Yorkshire Eye Hospital in Fountain Street in the grounds of Hull Royal Infirmary.

Hull University Teaching Hospitals (HUTH) have arranged for the mural to be spray-painted onto the side of the three-storey building to thank staff for their continuing efforts more than two years into the declaration of the pandemic by the World Health Organisation in January 2020.

Costing £2,500, the mural will also be a focal point to remember the 1,086 people who have died in Hull’s hospitals from the virus, including three of the trust’s own members of staff. It will feature the inscription: “We thank you, we think of them.”

HUTH Chief Executive Chris Long said: “We wanted to create a lasting tribute to thank staff for the outstanding efforts over these past two years.

“Our staff are still dealing with the pandemic and will continue to feel the impact on their workload and our hospital services for years to come so we wanted something that shows our city how much we appreciate everything they have done and are still doing every day.”

Spray Creative, a Hull-based collective of local graffiti artists, mural painters and urban decorators, will begin the mural this week and it is expected to be completed by the end of the month.

• Innovative collaboration between business, local government and the community will catapult UK’s net zero ambitions
• Living Lab approach will see 35+ businesses, representing 30,000 employees, take actionable steps to reduce their carbon footprints
• Hull and Humber region is critical to the UK reaching its net zero targets and supports the Government’s Levelling Up agenda

Reckitt, the maker of Dettol, is joining forces with over 35 businesses and community representatives in its birthplace, Hull, on a net zero initiative known as ‘Oh Yes! Net Zero’, that will lead the UK on its way to becoming carbon neutral. Hull is critical to the UK’s net zero ambitions as the Hull and Humber is the most carbon intensive industrial cluster in the UK: without Hull reaching net zero, the UK will not reach net zero¹.

The aim of the net zero initiative is to develop an innovative economic model in Hull to reduce carbon emissions and support a net zero future. By bringing together the private, public and education sectors, this collaboration supports the Government’s Levelling Up agenda.

The net zero collaboration is based on a ‘Living Lab’ approach, where learnings will be shared at individual (household), organisational and community levels, allowing the Hull experience to help other cities both in the UK and across the world achieve the same net zero ambitions.

Examples of commitments from partners so far include:

• Hull University Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust has pledged to reach net zero by 2030. A £4.5m solar panel “Field of Dreams”, is expected to generate enough energy to power the whole of Castle Hill Hospital. The Trust is also reducing anaesthetic gas emissions by 50% by 2025. Anaesthetic gases make up 2% of all NHS emissions. Using a single bottle of desflurane, the most common anaesthetic gas, has the same global warming effect as burning 440kg of coal.
• Hull City Council’s investments include £56m in carbon-neutral, green and net zero capital projects over the next four years (wind, solar, and district heating), as well as electrification of the council’s 300-strong fleet of vehicles by 2030. As part of its housing growth plan, Hull City Council is investing £50m to make energy saving improvements in the existing housing stock, and is committed to building new, modern council housing with enhanced levels of insulation to reducing energy demand.
• Reckitt has committed to, and delivered, using 100% renewable energy at its Science and Innovation Centre in Hull, as well throughout its manufacturing globally. Reckitt is also committed to generate 50% of net revenue from more sustainable products and reduce virgin plastic use by 50% by 2030.
• Reckitt, the Hull City Council and 1851 Trust have committed to empower 13 local secondary schools with science-based knowledge to take positive action against climate change with new ‘Protect Our Future’ programme. To kick start 18-months of action, will see students conducting a packaging recycling practical activity to improve their understanding of how to take action now and develop skills for the future.  They will be joined by 1851 Trust ambassador, Olympic sailor, Hannah Mills OBE.
• Ideal Heating and Hull City Council are conducting a study investigating the impact associated with using air source heat pumps to drive energy efficiencies and cost savings for residents.
• The Ron Dearing University Technical College (UTC) is investing in an employer-led school to provide local young people with the skills to support the city region’s aspirations to lead the way in decarbonisation and renewables.

Out of the six largest industrial clusters in the UK, the Humber region, where Hull is located, is responsible for the most CO2 emissions (around 37% of the clusters’ total)¹.  The Oh Yes! initiative’s innovative approach, uniting private and public communities in the city and putting the place at the heart of the net-zero strategy, is crucial to achieving the UK’s net zero strategy.

It will also encourage local residents to make small changes that together can make a meaningful difference in reducing our collective carbon footprint. Across the country, emissions from homes generally make up more than a quarter of all emissions², highlighting the opportunity that each of us has to make a difference.

COP26 President, Alok Sharma said:

“This is a unique campaign, illustrating the action we need to see as the UK becomes carbon neutral by 2050. It brings private and public sectors together, and asks every individual, household and organisation to help and make a difference across the Hull and Humberside areas.

“I look forward to seeing their success in driving down emissions, raising innovation and hope to see their ideas being replicated across the UK.”

Laxman Narasimhan, CEO of Reckitt said: “I’m delighted that Reckitt, along with our coalition of partners, is bringing together the people of Hull and the Humber to shape the region’s net zero future.  We’re extremely proud of our 182 years’ heritage in the city and are committed to the role Reckitt plays in creating a cleaner, healthier world for all.

“The Oh Yes! initiative, focused on one of Britain’s biggest industrial clusters, aims to unite and galvanise the city region behind the central aim of reducing carbon emissions and supporting the UK’s target to become net zero by 2050.”

The Oh Yes! Net Zero campaign will be launched at an event at Reckitt’s Science and Innovation Centre on 14th March, with Rt Hon Alok Sharma MP, Reckitt CEO Laxman Narasimhan and leaders of businesses and organisations from across Hull. Local students, involved with the local pioneering education project ‘Protect our Future’ will also attend the event, which will be hosted by former BBC environmental correspondent David Shukman.

The event will be lived streamed at the following link: https://event.sparq.me.uk/oh-yes/

Individuals, households and organisations can say Oh Yes! to making small changes to drive down carbon emissions by signing up for tips and advice at www.ohyesnetzero.co.uk.