The HCPC corporate strategy must include priorities on decarbonisation, environmental sustainability and resilience to climate impacts

In our response we stress that the increasing frequency and intensity of climate-related events such as heatwaves, floods and new disease patterns pose significant challenges to health and care services – both in terms of keeping services safe for patients and ensuring staff wellbeing. This is not a future threat but a current day reality that is set to worsen. 

Almost half (49%) of healthcare workers surveyed by MedAct reported NHS services being disrupted by extreme weather over the past five years. Current health system infrastructure is a significant concern, with 90% of England’s hospital buildings vulnerable to overheating and over 400 health and social care facilities at risk of flooding in Scotland [4,5]. The Climate Change Committee has warned of the risks to health without resilient hospitals and care homes. We highlight some key challenges that need to be considered:

1. Extreme weather events: Heatwaves, flooding and storms disrupt healthcare services, damage infrastructure, and increase demand for emergency care.
2. Changing disease patterns: Warmer temperatures and shifting ecosystems contribute to the spread of vector-borne diseases and exacerbate chronic conditions like cardiovascular and respiratory illnesses in addition to reducing opportunities for wellbeing activities such as exercise.
3. Vulnerable populations: Older people, children and those with pre-existing conditions are disproportionately affected, requiring targeted interventions.
4. Workforce and capacity strains: Increased demand for services during climate-related events exacerbates workforce shortages and stresses healthcare capacity.
5. Infrastructure vulnerability: Ageing facilities are often ill-equipped to handle extreme weather events and unable to ensure uninterrupted service provision.

Along with addressing resilience and adapting services to protect patients and staff from climate threats and service disruption, our response says that the health and care professionals council must play its part in becoming more environmentally sustainable in the delivery of health and care.

The NHS has targets to get to net zero by 2040 for all it directly controls and 2045 for all it consumes. This requires change at all stages of patient care pathways, ensuring the workforce are adequately knowledgeable about delivering sustainable healthcare, and supporting practitioners to implement decarbonisation actions within their practices.

Find out more about the HCPC corporate strategy here.