Full Description
The Routledge Handbook on Climate Change and Health System Sustainability takes the reader on a journey to understand the interconnectedness of human health, climate change, and healthcare systems.
The book begins by exploring how climate change is affecting human health through the increasing frequency of natural disasters, such as bush fires, droughts and heatwaves, and the emergence of new infectious diseases, such as the SARS-CoV2 virus, all of which drive up demand for health services that are already heavily burdened by increasing rates of chronic diseases and ageing populations. Chapters then turn to the contribution of the healthcare system itself to climate change— explaining how current clinical practices, including wasteful care of low value, create an unsustainable carbon footprint and threaten the very viability of healthcare systems. Throughout the volume, descriptions of practical solutions and implemented case studies are used to illustrate the feasibility of taking action in the real world of the healthcare delivery ecosystem.
Bringing together a mix of forward-thinking environmental and health researchers, policymakers, leaders, managers, clinicians, patients, and health industry leaders to clarify the current state and future of sustainable healthcare systems, this book will be of interest to researchers and policymakers of climate and health systems.
Contents
PART I: To begin1.How we got to here. 2.Can we have a sustainable health system? 3.Creating climate-resilient, sustainable health systems: Perspectives from health minister. PART II:The effects of climate change on human health and healthcare system sustainability. Section 1:Fundamental issues. 4.Climate change: How worried should we be? 5.Who are we? Social identity and sustainable healthcare in the Anthropocene. 6.Mental health in a time of crisis: The detrimental effects of climate change. 7.Antimicrobial use and antimicrobial resistance in people and animals and its potential impacts on planetary health. Section 2:Specific exemplars. 8.Australian bushfires, heatwaves, and disaster medicine. 9.Australian bushfires 2019-20: Exploring the short-term health impacts. 10.Emergency medicine in a climate crisis: Are we prepared? 11.Health system responses to climate change in Australia. Section 3:Social justice and climate change. 12.Population health perspective on extreme weather events and emergency medical services. 13.Indigenous planetary health and the bridging of Indigenous and conventional medicine systems. 14.Climate resilient development: What does this mean for health in the Indo-Pacific region? 15.Climate change and access to healthcare: A case study of Africa. 16.Climate change in Africa case Studies: Role of healthcare and sustainable interventions. PART III:The impact of healthcare delivery on environmental sustainability: Challenges and solutions. Section 1:Towards sustainability. 17.Climate change mitigation and healthcare sector sustainability. 18.Sustainable quality improvement and other practical solutions to implement sustainable healthcare. 19.Performance monitoring for a sustainable health system: New wine, new bottles? Section 2:System redesign. 20.'We argue that ... one simply cannot claim to be a "health" care professional without advocating forcefully for the planet': Planetary health needs to be included in health professions' education. 21.Digital health solutions to climate change challenges. 22.Learning Healthcare Systems: How to improve health system sustainability in the era of climate change. 23.Is the Learning Health System 2.0 (LHS 2.0) a solution to healthcare's climate challenges? Section 3:Structural perspectives on healthcare and environmental sustainability. 24.One Health: Perspectives on the interconnectedness of human, animal, and environmental health. 25.Integrated care, system leadership and sustainability. 26.It's not what you do, it's the way that you do it: Reducing the carbon footprint of healthcare through models of integrated care. 27.Climate action and healthcare - an Irish perspective. Section 4:Lowering the carbon footprint of healthcare. 28.Reconfiguring health organisations for environmental sustainability; implications for professions, work and management in healthcare. 29.Think pathways, not buildings: Assessing the climate impact of patient care pathways. 30.Greenifying the healthcare routine: Learnings from bottom-up green medical activism in the Netherlands. 31.Towards zero emissions in healthcare: The Italian experience. Section 5:Economic perspectives on improving healthcare. 32.Ecological economics for health and health systems. 33.What is overtreatment and why is it a problem? 34.Improving planetary and population health through frugal and reverse innovation. PART IV:What does it all mean? 35.Bringing it together. 36.Creating sustainable healthcare systems to cope with a changing climate: The time is now.
