*** This article was updated on 5 August ***
The Australian Centre for Disease Control yesterday hosted the first meeting of its Climate and Health Expert Advisory Group (CHEAG), providing an update on priority actions under the National Health and Climate Strategy.
The group is chaired by Ged Kearney, Assistant Minister for Health and Aged Care, with Deputy Chair being Professor Paul Kelly, Chief Medical Officer and Head of the interim Australian Centre for Disease Control.
Other members of the group include:
- Professor Lynne Madden, Chair, Multi-College Advisory Committee on Climate Change and Health
- Professor Jennifer Martin, President, Royal Australasian College of Physicians
- Professor Tarun Weeramanthri, President, Public Health Association Australia
- Dr Catherine Pendreym, Chair, Climate and Environmental Medicine Special Interest Group, Royal Australian College of General Practitioners
- Adjunct Associate Professor Rebecca Haddock, Executive Director of Knowledge Exchange, Australian Healthcare and Hospitals Association
- Elizabeth de Somer, CEO, Medicines Australia
- Jason Kara, CEO, Catholic Health Australia
- Dr Kate Wylie, Executive Director, Doctors for the Environment Australia
- Michelle Isles, CEO, Climate and Health Alliance
- Professor Eugenie Kayak, Enterprise Professor of Sustainable Healthcare, University of Melbourne
- Professor Kathryn Bowen, Deputy Director, Melbourne Climate Futures
- Professor Sotiris Vardoulakis. Director, Healthy Environments and Lives Network
- Associate Professor Angie Bone, Associate Professor of Practice in Planetary Health, Monash Sustainable Development Institute
- Professor Hilary Bambrick, Director, National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health, Australian National University
- Professor Alexandra Barratt, Professor of Public Health, University of Sydney
- Associate Professor Steve Morris, CEO, Pharmaceutical Society of Australia
- Paul Stewart, CEO, The Lowitja Institute
- Associate Professor Veronica Matthews, Centre for Rural Health at the University of Sydney
- Tom Symondson, CEO, Aged & Community Care Providers Association
- Jade Guitera, Vice-President External, Australian Medical Students’ Association
- Roslyn Morgan, Environmental Health Officer, Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation
- Professor Tracey Levett-Jones, Distinguished Professor of Nursing & Midwifery, University of Technology Sydney
- Associate Professor Carolyn Hullick, Chief Medical Officer, Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care
- Professor Nick Watts, Director, Centre for Sustainable Medicine, National University of Singapore
- Doris Whitmore, Interim CEO, Asthma Australia.
Also attending the online meeting were senior executives from the Department of Health and Aged Care.
As well as this external advisory group, Croakey understands that an internal group has been established with representatives across government to drive the strategy’s Health in all Policies approach. A committee of State and Territory representatives has also been established.
Questions on the minds of some CHEAG participants were around funding and resourcing of the National Health and Climate Strategy, the importance of transparency in how the Australian Centre for Disease Control allocates funding, and how the ongoing expansion of the fossil fuels industry undermines efforts to decarbonise the health system. Members reflected that communications, engagement and training delivered by members is critical to bring workforces and community along.
The strategy, launched last December, has four objectives: to build a climate-resilient health system; health system decarbonisation; international collaboration; and to promote Health in All Policies. It acknowledges the importance of working across policy areas in partnership with First Nations people to address the impact of climate change on the social and cultural determinants of health.
Serious concerns have been raised previously about the strategy’s capacity to achieve its stated objectives, due to a lack of detail and commitment on implementation and funding.
Timely evidence
Meanwhile, a new paper identifies a range of ways that countries are adapting health systems to climate change, including through building robust infrastructure able to withstand extreme weather, and early warning systems.
The article, in BMC Public Health, Health systems response to climate change adaptation: a scoping review of global evidence, also highlights the importance of improving the capacity of experts and institutions to produce high-quality evidence and national data systems to support health system adaptation decisions.
The authors caution that “inadequate funding, low climate risk perception, inadequate policy and poor policy implementation and evaluation, socio-economic challenges, lack of political support, deficits in evidence, and compromised healthcare systems, including infrastructure, make health system adaptation to climate risk challenging”.
The paper also highlights the risks to health workers from climate change, and frames it as an occupational health and safety issue.
Health systems should prioritise the well-being and safety of their workforce, as they are at the forefront of managing climate-related health emergencies, the authors say.
The paper also underscores the importance of considering the health system broadly; it is more than healthcare providers and facilities, but also extends to environmental and sanitation services, health promotion and education initiatives, public health function and services, community health, healthcare supply chains, long-term care, health financing mechanisms, and regulatory bodies.
The authors say the health system “is an indispensable component of broader climate action strategies” and “plays a crucial role in safeguarding the well-being and resilience of communities in the face of health risks associated with climate change”.
“The health system plays a critical role in all climate actions due to its interconnectedness with various climate-related issues such as public health risks, disease prevention, emergency response, and healthcare delivery to at-risk populations.”
Update from Croakey: Minister Ged Kearney issued a media release on 2 August about the meeting. She said:
“With more frequent and extreme climate events, climate change is a serious challenge to the health of Australians. After a decade of inaction and dysfunction, we are taking decisive measures to protect our health system.
“Labor is taking action now to ensure our health system can respond to these threats. We also making sure we minimise our health system’s contribution to climate change.
“Since I launched the National Health and Climate Strategy six months ago, we’ve made outstanding progress. The Climate and Health Expert Advisory Group will help build on this progress.
“We’ve pulled together the best and the brightest for this group. We all have a shared goal is to protect all Australians from the severe health risks posed by climate change, and to make the health system as sustainable as possible.”
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