19-member collaboration to prepare health system for climate change

A cross-sector collaboration involving 19 health sector partners is set to work on delivering a framework for the federal government’s health and climate strategy. This includes supporting a workforce-led health system response to climate change.

With more frequent and extreme climate events, climate change presents a serious health and wellbeing challenge to Australians. The World Health Organization has described climate change as the greatest threat to global health this century.

The Assistant Minister for Health and Aged Care and Assistant Minister for Indigenous Health, Ged Kearney MP, said, “From extreme heat to more frequent bushfires, climate change is forever changing our environment and how we live. Australia needs a health system that is prepared for these challenges.”

The framework aims to support Australia’s clinicians to deliver high-value care that protects and promotes the health of all Australians in a changing climate.

The collaboration between 19 organisations was born from a multi-college roundtable meeting earlier this year, led by Professor Paul Kelly, Chief Medical Officer and Head of the interim Australian Centre for Disease Control, and the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care’s Chief Executive Officer, Conjoint Professor Anne Duggan.

The joint statement ‘Working together to achieve sustainable high-quality health care in a changing climate’ is available on the Commission’s website: www.safetyandquality.gov.au/js-climate.

“This historic joint statement underpins a more resilient and responsive health system to address the impacts of climate change. It focuses the health sector on reducing its own contribution to climate change while preparing to tackle the challenges of our changing climate,” Kearney said.

Duggan said the Commission is a keen advocate of the health sector taking action to address the environmental impact of climate change, by improving the appropriateness and sustainability of health care.

“The joint statement reflects the serious impact of our changing climate and a shared commitment to reducing the health system’s contribution to carbon emissions. A key part of this is ensuring that care is evidenced-based and that Australians can access the most appropriate treatment choices.

“We are delighted to be partnering with the interim CDC and medical colleges to strive for a more sustainable health system for the people of Australia.”

Dr Sanjay Jeganathan, President of the Council of Presidents of Medical Colleges, expressed a similar view: “I am pleased that member colleges worked collaboratively with the Commission and the Department of Health and Aged Care to reach agreement in a joint statement, on the need for the medical profession to address the contribution the provision of medical services makes to Australia’s emissions and global heating.

“The colleges have collectively indicated through signing on that a coordinated effort, along with their existing programs to reduce carbon emissions, is the best way to make a long-term impact.”

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