Climate change – how ready are you?

Examine in the light of the increasing frequency of extreme weather events, some of the latest thinking on the topic in Canada, and reflect on the initiatives taken by a number of the country’s healthcare facilities to prepare for such incidents, and mitigate their impact.

Canada’s healthcare facilities are becoming more vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, which can disrupt facility services and care delivery. Extreme weather events (e.g. storms, floods, wildfires, and heatwaves) can create emergencies by damaging infrastructure, compromising access to critical resources (e.g. medical supplies and equipment, transportation, food, and water) and threatening the safety of patients, visitors, and staff. Climate change also increases risks to Canadians from some vector-, water- and food-borne diseases, and is expected to worsen air quality in many communities. Taken together, impacts on health from these climate-related hazards can have significant implications for demand on healthcare facility services. The World Health Organization has called on decision-makers to prepare for climate change impacts through efforts to increase resiliency in the health sector. This entails mainstreaming climate change into risk assessments, considering climate change when developing plans and programmes, and engaging in broader community discussions and initiatives around climate-related issues. For example, healthcare and public health officials can prepare by assessing risks from extreme weather events, increasing readiness to manage climate-related infectious disease outbreaks or atypical cases, and increasing understanding of how gradual shifts in weather can affect institutional risk profile.

Tangible evidence