Climate change impact on the healthcare provided to patients

Abstract

Abstract Background The last several years have shed light on the fact that changes in the global climate pose one of the greatest dangers to mankind and life on Earth. Even though a growing amount of attention is being paid to the acute consequences of climate change on human health, there is still very little that is recognized or understood about the impacts of climate change events on patient-related aspects, especially patient care and safety. Aim This study aims to fill the gap in the literature and provide a comprehensive synopsis and critical investigation of the effects of climate change on patient care and safety. Methodology This research is based on a narrative review which was more appropriate to provide a descriptive analysis of the topic of interest and to be suitable for the wide scope of the study. The research was conducted using several databases with no restriction on the date of the publication of searched documents and resulted in 34 articles which were then further assessed by removing any duplications and repetitions to have by the end 15 publications. The references of all included documents were further checked for additional relevant items. The study lasted for four months starting from 09/09/2022 to the last search date 10/01/2023. Main results Losing access to healthcare facilities, shortage in drugs due to disruption of supply chains resulting from climate extreme events, infections spread, increasing occurrence of medical errors, the emergence of new diseases, raising many problems with the safety of drug use, increasing patients vulnerability, delay in cancer detection and management, and worsening prognosis of cancer cases, are examples of the catastrophic effects that climate change poses on the health and patients care. Conclusions This study highlights the catastrophic impacts of climate change on patient care and safety and emphasizes the critical need for immediate action to reduce climate change and build more resilient healthcare systems.

Keywords

• Climate change
• Drugs safety
• Patient care
• Healthcare
• Medical errors
• Infection spread