Climate change has broad effects on health-care systems, medical journal says

When you have to shut down a hospital operating room (OR) because there's so much wildfire smoke your instruments can't be kept sterile, you know climate change is affecting health care.

"That actually happened in my OR," said Dr. Alika Lafontaine, president of the Canadian Medical Association.

Lafontaine recalled phoning facilities to find out whether or not their filtration was set to the right level, and trying to tell if the smell of smoke was a predicator of danger. 

"These things are out of the norm, so you don't think about them — until they happen."

Lafontaine echoed a warning in research released Tuesday from one of the world's top medical journals.

The Lancet concludes that, worldwide, extreme heat is already emphasizing the effects of heart and lung diseases, worsening pregnancy outcomes, disrupting sleep, increasing injury-related death and limiting people's capacity to work and exercise.

Infectious diseases such as malaria have a longer season to spread.

Heat-related deaths increased by 68 per cent between 2017-2021, compared to 2000-2004. Almost two-thirds of countries globally saw more days of very high or extremely high fire danger from 2001-2004 to 2018-2021.

Canada is not immune. Studies suggest the 2021 heat dome in British Columbia that resulted in 619 deaths would have been nearly impossible without the effects of climate change.

Lafontaine said the health-care system has to change to adapt to the coming challenges. The system needs backup capability. Health professionals need more transferable accreditation, so nurses from Saskatchewan could help out in B.C. Doctors need to be more aware of growing climate-related diseases such as Lyme disease.

"It changes the mix of diseases that are out there," Lafontaine said. 

But most of all, he said, health care's response to climate change needs national co-ordination.

"One of the major gaps in the response to the climate crisis, when it comes to health care, is establishing a national secretariat," he said.

Lafontaine suggested a rethink of how Canadians support places here and around the world, given those suffering the changes aren't necessarily major cities with investments.