Meet the Team

Dr Emma Fletcher, Director of Public Health says, "Climate change represents the single greatest threat to our collective health in the long-term. It is imperative that we become much more sustainable in the way we approach our lives in order to reduce future impact. Furthermore, many of the changes we can make now, will result in immediate benefits for us, our workplaces, our communities, across Tayside."

"I am delighted to be the Executive Lead for Climate Change and Sustainability for Tayside, and driving this work forward with teams across NHS Tayside and with partner agencies."

Brian Jones, lead Non-Executive Director for Sustainability at NHS Tayside, advocates to ensure that sustainability is integrated into the core strategy of the organisation, acting as the board-level champion, driving a long-term vision where sustainable practices are at the heart of our decision-making, innovation, and operational efficiency. This focus enables NHS Tayside to align with the broader national sustainability agenda, including the ambitious net-zero targets.

Sustainability is not just an operational issue; it is a strategic imperative that influences the resilience, quality, and future-readiness of healthcare delivery. By prioritising sustainability, we can unlock financial savings, reduce waste, and enhance our reputation as a forward-thinking healthcare provider, all while improving patient outcomes and supporting healthier communities.

Placing a Board-level focus on sustainability ensures strategic oversight enabling us to not only meet our regulatory obligations but also to position the us as a leader in sustainable healthcare, committed to making a lasting positive impact on both the environment and public health.

Lynne Hamilton, Public Health Programme Director for Sustainability and Anchors work brings a breadth of experience from managing several major change programmes to support the work of the team.  

Lynne says "I am truly humbled to be working with so many passionate people with a real drive to reduce our carbon footprint and work in more sustainable ways". Lynne's role has supported the establishment of the programme governance through a Climate Change and Sustainability Board, Team and several supporting workstreams. Through working with the workstream leads, Lynne provides reassurance to the Board of the progress made towards achieving its national Climate Change and Sustainability targets.

Philip Wilde, Property Environmental and Quality Manager has been involved in environmental management at NHS Tayside for the past eleven years. His role includes developing and implementing innovative solutions to minimise energy and thus reduce our carbon emissions.

He leads on the Board’s Public Bodies Climate Change Mandatory Annual Report and currently co-chairs the three Primary Care sites de-carbonisation project due to complete by March 2025. He also represents NHS Tayside on the Northern Boards Sustainability Group and is the Quality Manager for the Property Department.

Sustainable Clinical Care

Dr Pavan Bangalore is the clinical lead for sustainability and a consultant anaesthetist with Tayside since 2013 with a special interest in ultrasound and regional anaesthesia, advanced clinical monitoring, peri-operative diabetes, obstetric anaesthesia and pre-operative assessment. 

He is passionate about the environment and healthcare and his journey started more than a decade ago and he continues to have a few roles in this area. Pavan's other passion is medical education, and he is the current co-lead for Year 4 MBChB, University of Dundee. His career in medicine started in Bangalore, Southern India and he completed his post-graduation in anaesthesia at the University of Mumbai, India before moving to the United Kingdom. When he isn't at work, he spends time with his family and dabbles with photography and painting.
 

Dr Clare Webster is a general paediatrician with a special interest in diabetes and endocrinology. She is particularly interested in health inequality and climate change and adapting services to respond to these enormous challenges.

Clare has been vice chair of the NHST Sustainable Clinical Care group since January 2024 and a member of the RCPCH climate change working group 'Support for Members' for several years and is now a member of the RCPCH 'Curriculum Task and Finish' group. 

Claire says, "I am in the fortunate position of being able to commute to work by bike and when she I'm not at work I enjoy spending time with my children, being outdoors, running and even a little street dancing."
 

Dr Jennifer McInally is a consultant paediatrician in NHS Tayside who specialises in the care of children with complex neurodisability, child protection and childhood visual impairment. Jennifer says "children are extremely vulnerable to the harm caused by climate change and will be impacted by these harms over their whole lifetime - the climate crisis is a child’s rights crisis."

Healthcare provision directly contributes to climate change and bears the burden of the consequences. Climate inaction costs lives but by working together we can make a difference and give our children the future that they deserve."



Sustainable Property and Energy

George Curley is the Director of Facilities for NHS Tayside (bio to follow)

Philip Wilde is the Property Environmental and Quality Manager (Bio above)
 
John Ruddy is the Energy Officer for NHS Tayside. John has been involved in Energy Management for over 17 years, the last 12 at NHS Tayside. As Energy Officer, he is responsible for Managing and reducing the Health Board's energy use, through implementing Energy Efficiency projects and raising awareness amongst staff and visitors about how they can save Energy. His biggest achievement to date is being a leading member of the team that helped deliver the CEF project for the Ninewells and PRI Energy Centres, which has in the first 7 years delivered over £15million in savings to NHS Tayside. More recently, he has been involved in securing £3.2million in funding from Scottish Government for the decarbonisation of 3 Primary Care sites across Tayside, with heating systems being replaced with Air Source Heat Pumps, installation of Solar PV panels, as well as increased insulation and replacement windows and doors.

NHS Tayside's utility costs in 2023-24 were £18.4million, resulting in 40,986.1 tonnes of CO2 emissions, or 76.8% of NHS Tayside's carbon footprint.
 
Sustainable Travel and Transport

Slawomir Olejnik (bio to follow)

Ashleigh Henderson is a Senior Health Improvement Officer, with a lead role for physical activity. The physical activity agenda has a significant focus on active travel as means to increase everyday activity levels as well as supporting sustainability work. She has been helping GP surgeries and secondary care services across NHS Tayside to access ebikes and cycling infrastructure to allow staff to make use of cycling for work related travel.

She is keen to continue developing the use of active and sustainable modes of travel across the organisation and would encourage staff to get in touch to explore further opportunities to improve our travel and physical activity behaviours.

 

Sustainable Procurement

Andy Hay, Procurement Planning Manager, has led on sustainable procurement for 12 years and understands both the complexities and opportunities it holds. He chairs the NHS Tayside Sustainable Procurement group as well as co-chairing the NHS Scotland Sustainable Procurement Steering Group.

 

 

Greenspace and Biodiversity

Emily (Millie) Stevenson, Consultant in Public Health Medicine and co-chair of NHS Tayside's Greenspace and Biodiversity group alongside Vicki Tully.

Millie's work also includes understanding and mitigating the impact of environmental crises on health and wellbeing, as well as maximising the opportunities to improve population health and wellbeing by living more sustainably and delivering more sustainable healthcare. Millie also enjoys teaching and currently delivers sessions to medical students on environmental sustainability as well as supervising 'Student Selected Components' (SSCs) on sustainable healthcare. Outside of work, Millie enjoys being outdoors whether that is at the local Forfar Loch Parkrun, cycling or walking in the fabulous Tayside countryside.

   

Vicki Tully is one of the co-chairs for the Greenspace and Biodiversity group. She is working with the estates teams to improve the biodiversity of our healthcare sites, as well as connecting people to the benefits of being out in nature.

She is a Trustee in Ninewells Community Garden and also works closely with Dundee Eden Project, Dundee City Council, Dundee Botanic gardens and the RSPB.


Waste Management

Joyce Anderson is the Operational Waste Manager at NHS Tayside with 30 years of experience in operational management with healthcare, including private healthcare, GP practice, and the NHS. Joyce says "while waste management has always been part of my role, my current position at NHS Tayside is fully dedicated to it. I’m passionate about sustainability and the circular economy, and I’m proud to be one of only three Chartered Resource and Waste Managers in NHS Scotland".

Joyce shares that waste management is much more than just disposal. It is a complex field involving regulations, sustainability practices, technology, data analysis, and risk management which has evolved significantly in recent years and continues to do so.

Joyce believes that embracing the circular economy is key to reducing waste, cutting costs, and protecting the environment. This approach transforms waste management from simple disposal to resource recovery and environmental stewardship at NHS Tayside.

Dr Ciara Drummond, is a GP in Douglas Medical Centre, Dundee and chairs the local Greener Practice group, part of a national organisation to encourage sustainable practice in primary care. She has recently finished a role as a Sustainable Healthcare Career Start GP for NHS Tayside, promoting sustainable inhaler prescribing throughout Tayside.

Ciara also teaches GP trainees across Scotland about sustainable healthcare. She is particularly interested in lifestyle medicine, social and green prescribing, and the links between social and environmental justice.