RACS has united with other medical Colleges to highlight the risks posed to human health due to climate change, and warned that hospitals will struggle to cope with the increasing burden of climate change unless urgent action is taken.
The calls from RACS and other Colleges comes after the release of a new report titled Climate Change and Australia's Healthcare Systems.
The comprehensive report was commissioned by the Royal Australasian College of Physicians (RACP) and prepared by the Monash Sustainable Development Institute. It is designed to provide Australia's peak healthcare organisations with evidence-based recommendations for Australian policymakers, health systems, health professionals and the communities they serve.
Among the report's many dire warnings is a prediction that bushfires could contribute to the deaths of more than 1000 people in the next 10 years, and cost the healthcare system some $69 million.
The report also contains a series of recommendations, among which includes the establishment of a dedicated climate change health resilience fund to support research and innovation.
Professor David Fletcher, Chair of RACS' Environmental Sustainability in Surgical Practice Working Party, welcomed the release of the report and highlighted the responsibility of the health sector must take in reducing their emissions as well as engaging in climate change advocacy.
"The health-care community must take a leadership role in advocating for emissions reductions, and to critically examine our own activities with respect to their effects on human and environmental health. Surgeons are committed to reducing the footprint of our practice given it currently accounts for the majority of health's emissions. We commend this report as laying the groundwork for how we can collectively work together to mitigate the dire risks on human health posed by climate change.
Throughout the development of the report the RACP consulted an expert advisory committee, where RACS and the other Colleges provided input and advice. Each College was then asked to formally endorse the report. In addition to RACS, The RACP report has been endorsed by:
- Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP)
- Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists (RANZCP)
- Australian and New Zealand College of Anaesthetists (ANZCA)
- Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RANZCOG)
- Australasian College for Emergency Medicine (ACEM)
- College of Intensive Care Medicine (CICM)
- Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Ophthalmologists (RANZCO)
- Australasian College of Sports and Exercise Physicians (ACSEP)
The full report is available on the RACP Climate Change and Health page
