Climate change is a Health Emergency, too!
The Emergency Medicine Day campaign for 2024 will be dedicated to the impact of climate change on Emergency Medicine. The compelling testimonies from colleagues and patients have made clear to us that we must take action and ensure this issue is brought to everyone’s attention.
Climate change is humanity’s biggest health threat currently, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO). “Climate change is impacting people’s health in a myriad of ways, including: Leading to death and illness from increasingly frequent extreme weather events, such as heatwaves, storms and floods, disruption of food systems, an increase in zoonoses and food-, water- and vector-borne diseases, and mental health issues.
https://emergencymedicine-day.org/
EM day campaign for 2024 will focus on these main goals:
- Advocate the imperative need to actively assess both the magnitude of the issue and the level of EM systems preparedness to face it.
- Raise awareness globally and promote actions to minimize the impact. For example, urging policymakers to take necessary measures to address the problem and bringing the issue to the attention of the general world population.
We will seek answers to the following questions:
- How prepared are EMS to deal with the problems arising from climate change?
- How can we better prepare?
- How can we increase understanding of these problems among healthcare professionals and the public?