As published by RACP, the Australian peak medical bodies co-signed a Climate change letter to MPs highlighting health impacts.
Climate change open letter
To Australia’s Federal political leaders,
Climate change is a major risk to our healthcare system.
We are a broad group of doctors and physicians. We’re seeing the impacts of climate change on health first-hand, supporting our communities in the aftermath of horrific bushfires and devastating floods. We’re also seeing the impacts of extreme heat, particularly on older people. Paediatricians and obstetricians are concerned about how climate change will affect the lives of their young patients as they grow. GPs and psychiatrists are witnessing the mental health impacts of climate change and extreme weather events on people of all ages. And specialist physicians across the country are bracing for an onslaught of illness caused by the impacts of climate change.
The recent floods in NSW and Queensland, unprecedented in magnitude in living memory, demonstrate why we must act now to reduce the devastating impacts of severe weather events.
We are calling on federal political leaders to commit to action to build the resilience of our healthcare system to the impacts of climate change. At the same time, we want to play our part in the solutions. We’re advocating for support to ensure the healthcare system can reduce its own climate footprint.
We need a healthcare system that is both climate ready and climate friendly.
In the lead up to the Australian Federal Election, we are calling on all parties and candidates to commit to ensuring our healthcare system is:
Climate ready
- Create and fund a National Climate Change and Health Strategy that will enable our healthcare system to build climate resilience, including:
- development of climate risk and vulnerability assessments and locally led disaster planning for the healthcare system; acknowledging that rural and remote communities are at particular risk
- adaptation and resilience plans which acknowledge, support, and are guided by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander leadership
- equipping health and medical professionals with information, tools and resources to support them to anticipate, prepare for and respond to climate risks
- establishment of a surge health and medical workforce for deployment in response to extreme weather events
- being informed by the experience of COVID-19 and the limitations and vulnerabilities of the health system to significant shocks.
- Create and fund a National Climate Change and Health Sustainability Unit to oversee the implementation of the Strategy.
- Invest in a national Climate Change and Health Resilience Research Fund to identify resilience strategies suited to our health system.
Climate friendly
- Establish a Climate Friendly Health System Innovation Fund to provide grants to local health services for emissions reduction and sustainability initiatives.
- Include a plan for equitably decarbonising healthcare, to achieve net zero emissions in healthcare by 2040 in a funded National Climate Change and Health Strategy.
In developing climate change adaptation and resilience plans, we must learn from First Peoples who have built up thousands of years of accumulated knowledge on how to live sustainably in the unique Australian landscape. We must draw on that now to inform and guide our future plans. Indigenous cultural knowledge and leadership will strengthen our response to climate change and avoid harmful unintended consequences on communities that face existing health inequities.
In addition, we join many others, including the business community, farmers and community groups, in calling for an urgent transition to net-zero emissions across all economic sectors to address the underlying causes of climate change, with support to affected communities.
Signatories
- Professor John Wilson AM President, The Royal Australasian College of Physicians
- Dr Clare Skinner President, Australasian College for Emergency Medicine
- Dr Mark Fulcher President, Australasian College of Sport and Exercise Physicians
- Dr Vanessa Beavis President, Australian and New Zealand College of Anaesthetists
- Dr Karen Price President, Royal Australian College of General Practitioners
- Dr Mary Pinder President, The College of Intensive Care Medicine of Australia and New Zealand
- Dr Sally Langley President, The Royal Australasian College of Surgeons
- Dr Benjamin Bopp President, The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists
- Professor Nitin Verma AM President, The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Ophthalmologists
- Associate Professor Vinay Lakra President, The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists
Authorised by Peter McIntyre, CEO, The Royal Australasian College of Physicians, 145 Macquarie Street, Sydney, NSW 2000.
Associate Professor Magdalena Simonis AM is the Immediate Past President of the AFMW (2020-2023), former President of VMWS (2013 & 2017-2020) and current AFMW National Coordinator (2024-2026). She is a full time clinician who also holds positions on several not for profit organisations, driven by her passion for bridging gaps across the health sector. She is a leading women’s health expert, keynote speaker, climate change and gender equity advocate and government advisor. Magda is member of The Australian Health Team contributing monthly articles.
Magdalena was awarded a lifetime membership of the RACGP for her contributions which include past chair of Women in General Practice, longstanding contribution to the RACGP Expert Committee Quality Care, the RACGP eHealth Expert Committee. She is regularly invited to comment on primary care research though mainstream and medical media and contributes articles on various health issues through newsGP and other publications.
Magdalena has represented the RACGP at senate enquiries and has worked on several National Health Framework reviews. She is author of the RACGP Guide on Female Genital Cosmetic Surgery and co-reviewer of the RACGP Red Book Women’s Health Chapter, and reviewer of the RACGP White book
Both an RACGP examiner and University examiner, she undertakes general practice research and is a GP Educator with the Safer Families Centre of Research Excellence, which develops education tools to assist the primary care sector identify, respond to and manage family violence . Roles outside of RACGP include the Strategy and Policy Committee for Breast Cancer Network Australia, Board Director of the Melbourne University Teaching Health Clinics and the elected GP representative to the AMA Federal Council. In 2022. she was award the AMA (Vic) Patrick Pritzwald-Steggman Award 2022, which celebrates a doctor who has made an exceptional contribution to the wellbeing of their colleagues and the community and was listed as Women’s Agenda 2022 finalist for Emerging Leader in Health.
Magdalena has presented at the United Nations as part of the Australian Assembly and was appointed the Australian representative to the World Health Organisation, World Assembly on COVID 19, by the Medical Women’s International Association (MWIA) in 2021. In 2023, A/Professor Simonis was included on the King’s COVID-19 Champion’s list and was also awarded a Member (AM) in the General Division for significant service to medicine through a range of roles and to women’s health.
