Healthcare is being pushed to the frontline of the climate crisis, placing mounting pressure on clinicians, hospitals and already stretched infrastructure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That\u2019s the warning from Dr Matt Lee, sustainability lead with the Doctors\u2019 Association UK (DAUK).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dr Lee said extreme weather events pose risks to patients and healthcare workers, and increased demand on NHS services.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
His warning comes as the UK recorded an all-time temperature record for May two days in a row, with 34.8C at London\u2019s Kew Gardens on Bank Holiday Monday, and 35C at Heathrow Airport on Tuesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Such extreme temperatures are placing increasing pressure on the NHS during the summer months alongside the well-recognised winter crisis, Dr Lee said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He said: \u201cIt’s not yet officially summer and temperatures are in the mid thirties.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe current global weather patterns suggest we are in for more heat records to be broken this summer, and yet today is the most stable climate we will ever experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cFirst and foremost, we urge everyone to stay safe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAs a healthcare community, now more than ever we must use our voice to advocate for climate action, for the sake of our friends, our families and our patients.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWeather will get more extreme, more lives will be lost, and healthcare will continue to be on the frontline of the effects of climate change.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dr Lee called for the Government, and the new health secretary James Murray, to make tackling climate change a key policy priority.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He said: \u201cWe\u2019ve been consistently clear that the climate crisis is a health crisis and that failure to act will and is placing massive strain on healthcare systems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe urge the new health secretary to make this his priority, and we are here ready to work with him to bring about change.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
DAUK is encouraging healthcare professionals and organisations to engage with the National Emergency Briefing Film by organising workplace screenings or attending community events.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
DAUK members will already have received details in the latest newsletter about a special online screening taking place later this evening.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dr Lee said: \u201cWe encourage everyone to engage with the National Emergency Briefing Film, by hosting screenings in your workplaces or attending local film screenings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cFor healthcare professionals specifically, we also encourage you to use Our Health, Our Planet<\/a>, for specialty specific and public facing information on the climate crisis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cChange is possible and we must work together to advocate for our patients to have a safe and liveable future for all.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Picture credit by\u00a0<\/strong>Li-An Lim<\/a>\u00a0on\u00a0<\/strong>Unsplash<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n DAUK is run by frontline doctors for frontline doctors. Please support our work by\u00a0joining DAUK<\/a>\u00a0or donating to\u00a0our GoFundMe<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Healthcare is being pushed to the frontline of the climate crisis, placing mounting pressure on clinicians, hospitals and already stretched infrastructure. That\u2019s the warning from…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":1532,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[650],"tags":[651,652,680],"class_list":["post-3248","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-climate-crisis","tag-climate-change","tag-climate-crisis","tag-dr-matt-lee"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3248","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3248"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3248\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3250,"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3248\/revisions\/3250"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1532"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3248"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3248"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3248"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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