Yasmina Hamdaoui
A pharmacist from Bangor in north Wales has been celebrated as one of 100 of the country’s ‘changemakers’, by Wales’ outgoing Future Generations commissioner.
Yasmina Hamdaoui, pre-operative assessment pharmacist at Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board (BCUHB), was recognised in the Future Generations Changemaker 100 list for her work on sustainability in healthcare.
Hamdaoui and colleagues set up a multidisciplinary ‘green group’ at BCUHB in 2020, and she has also been involved in the wider Green Health Wales initiative, a network set up to help connect healthcare professionals in Wales wanting to work towards sustainable healthcare.
According to the Future Generations Changemaker 100 list report, published in January 2023, the BCUHB green group team “challenged the healthcare system to reduce its own waste and emissions, bringing more than 80 others on board with their mission to save the planet as well as patients”.
The list was compiled by Sophie Howe, the first Future Generations commissioner, who left her post after seven years in January 2023.
The Welsh Assembly was one of the first governments in the world to introduce a Future Generations law, in 2015, by which public bodies in Wales have to consider how they will deliver social, economic, environmental and cultural wellbeing for current and future generations. The change is overseen by the Future Generations commissioner.
Hamdaoui said being included on the list was “wonderful”.
“It is quite an honour and fantastic to be named among other people doing this work. It encourages us all to think about what we are doing and ensure it’s in the best interests of generations to come,” she said.
She took part in a day of celebration at the Wales Millennium Centre in Cardiff on 24 January 2023, attended by Mark Drakeford, first minister for Wales; local school children; and other changemakers on the list.
Other names on the list include Welsh actor Michael Sheen; Laura McAllister, professor of public policy and the governance of Wales at Cardiff University; and Noel Mooney, chief executive of the Football Association of Wales.
Hamdaoui said the green group at her hospital had so far tasked a pharmacy technician to investigate how they could improve inhaler use, reduce single-use plastics and improve the use of anaesthetic and other medical gases that contribute to global warming.
