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Is enough attention given to climate change in health service planning? An Australian perspective
BACKGROUND: Within an Australian context, the medium to long-term health impacts of climate change are likely to be wide, varied and amplify many existing disorders and health inequities. How the health system responds to these challenges will be best considered in the context of existing health fac...
Autores principales: | , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Co-Action Publishing
2014
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4064245/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24947804 http://dx.doi.org/10.3402/gha.v7.23903 |
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author | Burton, Anthony J. Bambrick, Hilary J. Friel, Sharon |
author_facet | Burton, Anthony J. Bambrick, Hilary J. Friel, Sharon |
author_sort | Burton, Anthony J. |
collection | PubMed |
description | BACKGROUND: Within an Australian context, the medium to long-term health impacts of climate change are likely to be wide, varied and amplify many existing disorders and health inequities. How the health system responds to these challenges will be best considered in the context of existing health facilities and services. This paper provides a snapshot of the understanding that Australian health planners have of the potential health impacts of climate change. METHODS: The first author interviewed (n=16) health service planners from five Australian states and territories using an interpretivist paradigm. All interviews were digitally recorded, key components transcribed and thematically analysed. RESULTS: Results indicate that the majority of participants were aware of climate change but not of its potential health impacts. Despite this, most planners were of the opinion that they would need to plan for the health impacts of climate change on the community. CONCLUSION: With the best available evidence pointing towards there being significant health impacts as a result of climate change, now is the time to undertake proactive service planning that address market failures within the health system. If considered planning is not undertaken then Australian health system can only deal with climate change in an expensive ad hoc, crisis management manner. Without meeting the challenges of climate change to the health system head on, Australia will remain unprepared for the health impacts of climate change with negative consequences for the health of the Australian population. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-4064245 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2014 |
publisher | Co-Action Publishing |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-40642452014-06-26 Is enough attention given to climate change in health service planning? An Australian perspective Burton, Anthony J. Bambrick, Hilary J. Friel, Sharon Glob Health Action Original Article BACKGROUND: Within an Australian context, the medium to long-term health impacts of climate change are likely to be wide, varied and amplify many existing disorders and health inequities. How the health system responds to these challenges will be best considered in the context of existing health facilities and services. This paper provides a snapshot of the understanding that Australian health planners have of the potential health impacts of climate change. METHODS: The first author interviewed (n=16) health service planners from five Australian states and territories using an interpretivist paradigm. All interviews were digitally recorded, key components transcribed and thematically analysed. RESULTS: Results indicate that the majority of participants were aware of climate change but not of its potential health impacts. Despite this, most planners were of the opinion that they would need to plan for the health impacts of climate change on the community. CONCLUSION: With the best available evidence pointing towards there being significant health impacts as a result of climate change, now is the time to undertake proactive service planning that address market failures within the health system. If considered planning is not undertaken then Australian health system can only deal with climate change in an expensive ad hoc, crisis management manner. Without meeting the challenges of climate change to the health system head on, Australia will remain unprepared for the health impacts of climate change with negative consequences for the health of the Australian population. Co-Action Publishing 2014-06-18 /pmc/articles/PMC4064245/ /pubmed/24947804 http://dx.doi.org/10.3402/gha.v7.23903 Text en © 2014 Anthony J. Burton et al. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
spellingShingle | Original Article Burton, Anthony J. Bambrick, Hilary J. Friel, Sharon Is enough attention given to climate change in health service planning? An Australian perspective |
title | Is enough attention given to climate change in health service planning? An Australian perspective |
title_full | Is enough attention given to climate change in health service planning? An Australian perspective |
title_fullStr | Is enough attention given to climate change in health service planning? An Australian perspective |
title_full_unstemmed | Is enough attention given to climate change in health service planning? An Australian perspective |
title_short | Is enough attention given to climate change in health service planning? An Australian perspective |
title_sort | is enough attention given to climate change in health service planning? an australian perspective |
topic | Original Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4064245/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24947804 http://dx.doi.org/10.3402/gha.v7.23903 |
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