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Sustainability and Inequalities in Health Care

Explore the correlation between sustainability and health inequalities with a focus on climate change impact, resource use, and social justice within healthcare systems. Learn practical actions for health practitioners in combating climate change, promoting fair global health, and creating a healthier, greener future. Take action now to address these critical issues for the well-being of current and future generations.

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Sustainability and Inequalities in Health Care

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  1. Sustainability and Inequalities David Pencheon NHS Sustainable Development Unit, England 21st May 2010 RCP ADPH Conference

  2. sustainable development “development that meets our own needs… …without compromising the ability of people in the future and elsewhere to meet their needs” - adapted from the Brundtland Commission

  3. sustainable development = social justice

  4. Food and obesity • Physical activity • Travel related trauma and death • Access to green space and health

  5. All based on an unsustainable economic model • consumerism • status • trust • social cohesion • Unequal societies are less sustainable

  6. myths • The credit crunch means we have to delay investing in a sustainable future • My wealth depends on someone else’s poverty • Inequality drives innovation and creativity

  7. The least empowered and the most vulnerable are MUCH more sensitive to change- economic- environmental

  8. The time is now At least 15,000 people died prematurely as a result of Europe’s heat wave in 2003 in France1 1. Unprecedented heat-related deaths during the 2003 heat wave in Paris: consequences on emergency departments Jean-François Dhainaut, Yann - Erick Claessens, Christine Ginsburg, and Bruno Riou. Crit Care. 2004; 8(1): 1–2. Published online 2003 December 4. doi: 10.1186/cc2404. and Bhattacharya, S. (October 2003), ‘European heat wave caused 35,000 deaths’, The New Scientist. http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn4259

  9. The 1995 Chicago heat wave led to approximately 700 heat-related deaths in Chicago over a period of five days

  10. Unfair resource use causes illness and death directly...

  11. …there are MUCH greater health risks for the least empowered through:

  12. Health co-benefits • Traditional person focussed benefit • Physical activity, diet, mental health, trauma, air pollution… • Benefits for health care system • Congruent with policy direction for many health care systems: care closer to home, empowered, self care, better use of drugs, better use of ICT, prevention • Benefits for international (health) inequity • Cost effective leap frogging from pre-industrial, pre-carbon to post carbon, missing out high carbon step in the middle • Justice: Contraction and convergence • Energy: Concentrated solar power (CSP), much from warmer and poorer countries

  13. Fairer andmore sustainableglobal health…

  14. Who produces the greenhouse gases? The world map reflecting production related to climate change.“Climate Change presents the biggest threat to health in the 21st Century” The Lancet (373;9697  pp 1659-1734, May 16-22 2009).

  15. Who bears the burden? The world map reflecting mortality related to climate change.“Climate Change presents the biggest threat to health in the 21st Century” The Lancet (373;9697  pp 1659-1734, May 16-22 2009).

  16. Within 6 hours, deserts receive more energy than the world uses in a year.

  17. References • Climate and Health Council (www.climateandhealth.org) • Collapse, Jared Diamond. • Global health, global warming, personal and professional responsibility, Cambridge Medicine, Pencheon D, Vol 2, No 22, 2008 • Stott R, Healthy response to climate change, BMJ 2006;332;1385-1387 • Gill M, Why should doctors be interested in climate change?BMJ Jun 2008; 336: 1506 • Griffiths J, Alison Hill, Jackie Spiby and Mike Gill, Robin Stott Ten practical actions for doctors to combat climate change, BMJ 2008;336;1507 • Sustaining a healthy future: www.fph.org.uk • Griffiths J et al, The Health Practitioner's Guide to Climate Change, Earthscan 2009 • Pencheon D, Health services and climate change: what can be done? J Health Serv Res Policy. Editorial Jan 2009 • UCL Health Commission/Lancet: Managing the Health effects of Climate Change. May 2009 • The health benefits of tackling climate change, Wellcome/LSHTM, Nov 2009 • Sustainable Development Commission: http://www.sd-commission.org.uk/pages/health.html

  18. Action now… • SDC Good Corporate Citizenshiptoolkit • www.corporatecitizen.nhs.uk/ • NHS Carbon Trust ManagementProgramme • http://www.carbontrust.co.uk/carbon/publicsector/nhs/ • Sustaining a Healthy Future • www.fph.org.uk • NHS Confederation briefings • http://www.nhsconfed.org/Publications/briefings/Pages/Briefings.aspx • NHS Carbon Reduction Strategyand 2030 health care scenarios • www.sdu.nhs.uk See notes of this slides for some of the most important specific actions

  19. Never waste a crisis......our watch, our legacy

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