New Electric Vehicles Drive Health's Future
North Metropolitan Health Service (NMHS) is the first health service provider to secure an Electric Vehicle fleet. With the initial fleet based at Graylands Hospital, the new sustainable fleet is in line with the State Electric Vehicle Strategy (external site) which NMHS intends to make ‘greener’, over time.
Simon Marsh, Campus Facilities Manager, is part of the NMHS Sustainability Program and his passion for this project helps drive it.
“Our Green Vehicle Guidelines is continuing to be developed and will encourage focusing vehicle selection around hybrids and electric vehicles, where appropriate, to minimise NMHS’ carbon footprint. As more hybrid and electric vehicles become available in Australia – we are now seeing electric SUVs, utes and vans being introduced to the market – it will be easier to secure what we want across all sites.”
Graylands Hospital was the proposed inaugural fleet location due to the high vehicle numbers based there and available space for future infrastructure to be built, such as software upgrades and solar panels.
Whilst there is less demand for in-person meetings since COVID, there has been a higher demand from clinical departments due to more home visits to reduce patients coming into the hospital and to accommodate patient needs, services being expanded, addition of new departments such as the State-wide Pharmacy and the expansion of Mental Health services.
“Staff who use the cars have loved driving them and learning about the technology - so the indirect effect is that it has inspired many of them to personally buy electric cars.”
There is also a timely additional benefit with rising fuel prices is that these EVs will keep costs down as the Hybrid has over 400km more range than a traditional petrol model.
“A number of vehicles have been utilised to deliver COVID-19 vaccinations and other consumables to the state run clinics as well as administering vaccines to parts of the marginalised population including homeless people and prisoners.”
The plans for the future include building a solar-powered facility for housing and powering the fleet.
Sophie Gargett from the NMHS Communications team visited Graylands to test drive one of the Hyundai Ioniq fleet cars and peruse the set-up that has been created for the fleet at the Facilities Management location. She said of the experience:
"The car itself was a dream to drive - it was so quiet and smooth. But I was most impressed by the infrastructure that has been installed to support the fleet. Simon's team has created a really well-organised system from the charging stations to the sophisticated usage and reporting technology. The passion and enthusiasm that Simon has to create a more sustainable future for NMHS is inspiring and I felt really proud of this initiative."
