Many Croakey readers may want to contribute to an Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care consultation on sustainable healthcare. However, the deadline is looming – 31 January.
Fortunately, Remy Shergill, Campaigns and Communications Manager for the Climate and Health Alliance, is here to help.
Remy Shergill writes:
We need you! Here is an effective and simple action you can take to help make Australia’s health services more sustainable and resilient – and it can take as little as five minutes.
The Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care is accepting feedback on a draft Sustainable Healthcare module until Tuesday 31 January 2023.
This proposed Sustainable Healthcare module could be a catalyst for amazing progress for sustainable healthcare in Australia. If properly implemented, the module will support health service organisations to:
- Build climate resilience
- Reduce greenhouse gas emissions
- Achieve higher value care across the healthcare system
- Assess the safety and quality implications for delivering sustainable, adaptable and resilient healthcare.
It’s a great initiative! We need to show it’s popular with health professionals. Can you take five minutes now to give your feedback? Here’s our submission guide.
Why does this matter?
Climate change will have unavoidable consequences for healthcare services.
For example, extreme weather events are leading to dramatic increases in demand for healthcare services, while also reducing the safety, effectiveness, access to, and efficiency of healthcare. At the same time, the health sector is exacerbating the problem, contributing to approximately seven percent of total national emissions.
Australia’s healthcare services must quickly employ mitigation, adaptation and resilience strategies to meet the challenges of the future. These strategies provide huge opportunities, like providing higher value care and capitalising on the health co-benefits of climate action.
At the moment, there is very little guidance on how health services should undertake this process. Across Australia, there are many different sustainability approaches, making coordination increasingly difficult.
A standard Sustainable Healthcare module would provide advice to health services taking their first steps in the area of sustainability, while making sure that everyone is taking a similar approach.
So what does this module actually propose?
The proposed module contains five actions to support health service organisations to include sustainability measures and targets:
- Improved leadership and governance for setting priorities
- Using established clinical governance systems to implement evidence-based strategies
- Establishing, integrating and monitoring sustainability measures and indicators
- Training and workforce capacity building
- Collaboration between the governing body, management, health workforce and consumers.
The Climate and Health Alliance views this module as an important first step for supporting health services to drive climate and sustainability action in a coordinated manner.
The actions are also consistent with the Framework for the National Strategy on Climate, Health and Wellbeing developed by the Climate and Health Alliance in 2021, and endorsed by 70-plus health organisations. We strongly encourage people to make a submission, demonstrating their support.
Room for improvement
Here is our take on how the draft module can still be improved. For more information, see our submission guide.
Move beyond voluntary participation
For the moment, the module is voluntary. Health service organisations can choose to be assessed against the module as part of their routine assessment process, but the outcome will not be considered when their accreditation is determined.
This is a useful starting point to gain feedback on the module’s applicability, content and appropriateness. However, we believe the actions in this module should be integrated into existing standards, such as the NSQHS Standard, in the near future.
Integration would ensure that health service organisations have assessed their climate risks and are taking steps to ensure that they will be able to continue providing safe and quality care in a climate affected world.
We recognise this work is crucial, but time- and resource-intensive. Adequate resourcing is required for health service organisations to undertake this work.
It needs more detail
The list of suggested strategies should be expanded to provide further guidance on how health service organisations can meet each action. This will allow health service organisations to choose strategies that are relevant for their context.
In our submission guide, we have suggested several specific actions to be included, such as:
- Clear communication on who within the governance structure is ultimately responsible for meeting sustainability and climate resilience targets
- Training for the governing body to help them understand their climate risk management obligations
- Environmental sustainability criteria is included in procurement.
Focus on communication
We recommend the name of the module be adjusted to communicate its focus, such as Climate Resilient and Sustainable Healthcare module.
The relationship between healthcare climate risks, adaptation and resilience, environmental sustainability and providing safe and quality healthcare, should be communicated more clearly and consistently in the explanatory note and intent.
This will help people who have not previously focused on these issues understand why this module is necessary, and why the Commission has developed the module.
You know the why – here’s the how
The Commission is seeking feedback on the module’s applicability, content and appropriateness to the health sector here. People can submit feedback via a written submission or by using the survey tool on the Commission’s website. Consultation is open to anyone who wishes to participate.
The online survey asks a series of questions about the module – you can answer all or some of them. We’ve collated a short submission guide which will help you to complete a survey with some suggested answers. You can copy and paste our answers, or use them as inspiration. These are suggestions only.
Further reading
A Review of Sustainable Healthcare: Policy, Practice, and Research with a Focus on Safety and Quality
A report commissioned by the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care, developed by Climate and Health Alliance and Monash Sustainable Development Institute
Climate Change and Australia’s Healthcare Systems: A review of literature, policy and practice by the Royal Australasian College of Physicians
See Croakey’s extensive archive of articles on safety and quality of healthcare