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President’s Blog: Change in weather needed for medical care
Friday May 31, 2024
Earlier in the month, the Epidemiology Directorate within WA’s Department of Health published, with little fanfare, a report entitled Projecting heat-related health impacts under climate change in Perth. It has received some media attention, but little else. But it’s incumbent on us, as doctors, to understand the implications of climate change for human health, and now we have a well-researched, measured, unbiased paper pertaining to our capital city.
It examined outcomes known to be associated with morbidity and mortality, such as acute coronary syndromes, cerebrovascular disease, and respiratory, kidney and psychiatric disorders. Assuming an increase in average temperatures by 1.64C by the 2050s, it found a significant increase in heat-related deaths by 61.4% (from 5.29 deaths to 8.54 deaths per 100,000 population). It anticipates an increase in heat-related hospital admissions by 33.8%, emergency department presentations by 29.8%, and overall costs to the health system by $30.6 million. It also foreshadows extreme heat-related events to increase from a once in 50-year phenomenon to a once in 10-year phenomenon.
Whilst the report acknowledges uncertainties around extrapolation and causality, its findings broadly align with those of other studies. The findings should serve as both a warning to broader society about the health dimensions of climate change, and to health service operators and funders about the need for forward planning. In addition, health services have significant carbon footprints, and as leaders within these services, doctors have responsibilities to consider our own environmental contributions.
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