16th October 2026
It would be hard to leave the house at the moment without hearing reports of the “Godzilla” El Nino and the devastating impact it is predicted to unleash in terms of lives lost, extreme weather, hardship and food shortages. After a summer of wall-to-wall heatwaves it certainly feels like the impact of climate change has not only breached our shores, but is banging on our doors calling for action.
In the UK, efforts to understand the impact of heatwaves this summer on the provision of safe and high quality care for patients are underway. These will feed into recommendations of the changes that will need to be made to cope with the changing climate. A significant challenge for us all is going to be ensuring that efforts to prevent further climate change don’t get lost in the noise around the ’need to adapt.’ And that in our efforts to learn how to adapt, we don’t further exacerbate the circumstances that lead to climate change in doing so.
This month’s edition brings a focus on the areas where we can all act to make a difference – individually and through leveraging our influence in organisations and wider networks.