TECHNOLOGY
The healthcare sector is at a high risk of climate-driven natural hazards that can have serious , long-lasting implications , including the immediate effects on staff wellbeing and numbers of patients , as Symons-Jones highlights .
“ Health services will also have to grapple with a rise in mortality rates and poorer patient recovery from illness , in addition to medical staff struggling to work in overheated conditions or an increase in staff absenteeism due to illness , school closures or caring for relatives during extreme weather events .
“ The IPCC ’ s sixth assessment report showed that climate change will significantly increase ill health and premature deaths in the near-to long-term future .”
Extreme weather puts pressure on the infrastructure of health services But it isn ’ t just the human side of healthcare that will suffer ; the base infrastructure will also be impacted by severe weather .
The healthcare sector is at high risk of climate-driven natural hazards which can have serious impacts from flooded boiler rooms to leaky roofs .
“ The heatwaves of summer 2022 brought climate adaptation to the forefront of our minds . Many trusts were forced to cancel appointments due to IT systems failures and overheated AHUs and cooling systems .”
“ As it stands , Britain ’ s critical national infrastructure for providing healthcare is not built to withstand forecasted changes in climate . We can expect the increasing frequency and severity of risks like heatwaves and drought to lead to healthcare assets and infrastructure having to be retrofitted or even relocated .”
“WE ACTIONED APPROXIMATELY £ 40M IN CLEAN TECH TRANSACTIONS FOR COMPLETED PROJECTS IN THE LAST FEW YEARS ”
LUCY SYMONS-JONES NET-ZERO DIRECTOR , LEXICA
According to Symons-Jones , the healthcare industry has the opportunity to lead the rest of the world in becoming more resilient in the face of climate change .
“ One of the most exciting opportunities is that the healthcare service , given its scale and size , can be a testing ground for the clean tech industries of the future .”
Whether thinking about new ways of generating electricity or different ways of heating buildings , putting new technologies to work in the healthcare sector is a very exciting source of progress .
100 July 2023