Acute Medicine
How Will Climate Change Affect Acute Medicine?
Acute medicine sees much of the flow through secondary care centres. The workload is very likely to increase significantly due to the effects of climate change.
Heatwaves, in particular, increase the risk of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular events. Along with air pollution, heatwaves can contribute to asthmas and COPD exacerbations, as well as cause electrolyte disturbances and delirium in the older populations.
The changing climate also increases the likelihood of the spread of tropical disease such as dengue fever, malaria and zika virus, all of which we are broadly unfamiliar with in the UK, however will likely need to get accustomed to treating in the future.
The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) has recently released a comprehensive report on the likely consequences of climate change for human health in the UK.
How is Acute Medicine Affecting Climate Change?
As with every secondary care specialty, waste is a significant issue. Everything we do as clinicians has an environmental footprint, such as blood tests, medication use, energy use and transportation implications.
The biggest way to improve the sustainability of the healthcare system is to keep people out of hospital or to discharge them as soon as feasible. Naturally, there are often many obstacles to a timely discharge, however it is worth considering if your department can explore any options to accelerate this process from a environmental perspective e.g. telephone follow ups.
Society for Acute Medicine
The Society for Acute Medicine is developing a page of tailored resources for environmental sustainaibility in the specialty
ECOSAM Hot-Weather Plan
The Society for Acute Medicine has produced the following guidance to support clinicians working in acute services to:
1) Work safely during hot weather conditions.
2) Know who is at risk and adapt individual care plans to respond to hot
weather.
3) Be aware of medications that increase patient risk during hot weather.
4) Know how to treat heat related illnesses including increased cardiovascular and respiratory complications.
5) Be familiarised with the advice from public health to share with patients.
6) Promote environmental and behavioural changes that could reduce the risk of hot weather.
Discussion Ideas with Patients and Colleagues
Patients:
"Eating less meat and more fruit and veg can reduce your risk of cardiac events, and is good for the planet too."
"Would you be happy with a telephone follow up appointment? We are trying to reduce how much travel people need to do in order to improve air quality and health."
Colleagues
"How can we reduce the number of blood tests we do on patients?"
"Is there any way of improving our community follow up service to get people home easier?"
Plant-Based Health Professionals UK (PBHPUK) has comprehensive evidence summaries of the benefits of adopting a more plant-based diet. Click below for more information:
Highest Impact Actions for Acute Medicine Departments
Incorporate sustainable healthcare and climate change into departmental governance meetings.
Explore waste reduction strategies through QIP, such as paper and blood test reduction
Deliver educational sessions on the presentation and management of different conditions you may see in the department as a consequence of climate change
For More Information
The Society for Acute Medicine is rapidly building its sustainability resources and is constantly looking for new, innovative ideas. They are currently running a competition on sustainable quality improvement projects to help share knowledge and accelerate the decarbonisation of the specialty. Click below for more information: