VICDOC Summer 2023 - Magazine - Page 13
Ultimately, it’s us that will be at the frontline,
treating the patients that are walking into our
hospitals or clinics with climate change related
illnesses. We're ethically obliged to step forward
and speak up.
Learn more about
Doctors for the
Environment
Australia
MANY CLINICIANS HAVEN’T RECONCILED THE
IMPACTS OF THE WAY WE DELIVER HEALTHCARE
ON CLIMATE CHANGE, AND THE IMPACTS OF
CLIMATE CHANGE ON PATIENTS.
-
In many clinical workplaces, everyone is
focused on business as usual. But when
you ask people about environmental
sustainability, they’re extremely passionate.
Sustainability in healthcare still sits as a
separate issue for many of us – we’re not
uniformly recognising that sustainable
healthcare is ultimately about highquality patient care and protecting that.
That's a huge part of why I've led DEA’s
work on mapping the pathophysiological
implications of climate change on the
organ systems of the body. And in turn,
how climate change relates to and is
impacting the different medical specialties
THERE'S ALWAYS A ROLE FOR PUBLIC AND
PRIVATE CLINICIANS TO STEP FORWARD
AND ADVOCATE AND LEAD IN THIS SPACE.
-
Ultimately, it’s us that will be at the
frontline, treating the patients that are
walking into our hospitals or clinics with
climate change related illnesses. We're
ethically obliged to step forward and
speak up. And although it may be that
classically medicine’s core business is
prescription and scalpels and not thinking
about building energy or leakage of nitrous
oxide from the hospital pipes, it really is
our core business because it’s impacting
the patients in front of us. A huge part of
environmentally sustainable healthcare
is increasing our focus on primary and
preventative healthcare, because the lowest
carbon health system is ultimately one
where you support people to remain healthy.
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