Key Messaging
The key reasons everyone should support hospital electrification:
Answer
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Protecting Public Health: Transitioning away from fossil gas is crucial to mitigate climate change, which is the greatest threat to our health. Gas combustion also causes significant respiratory disease, particularly in homes, and hospitals should lead by example in replacing harmful gas with electricity.
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Climate Resilience and Security: By moving to renewable-powered electricity and micro-grids, hospitals become better equipped to stay operational and safe during extreme weather events and energy blackouts.
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Economic Efficiency: Shifting to an electric infrastructure protects the healthcare budget from volatile and expensive gas prices, enabling long-term energy savings to be reinvested directly into patient care.
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Leading by Example: Healthcare is responsible for 7% of Australia’s carbon footprint. Gas combustion, particularly in homes, also releases toxins that significantly increase risk of asthma. The health sector must lead the national transition to clean energy to fulfil its mission of doing no harm.
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Immediate Action: Our campaign calls for urgent and historic electrification policy changes: we want to see, as a start, funding for a 9-hospital pilot program and ensuring all new public hospital infrastructure in Australia is built all-electric
- Lowers Running Costs: Retrofitting a hospital to become fully electric and powered by renewables creates cost savings on energy bills. These savings can be redirected into healthcare.