Governments must disaster-proof Canada's hospitals against climate change: experts

  • 📰 CTVNews
  • ⏱ Reading Time:
  • 119 sec. here
  • 3 min. at publisher
  • 📊 Quality Score:
  • News: 51%
  • Publisher: 99%

Health Health Headlines News

Health Health Latest News,Health Health Headlines

Last month, the Canadian Medical Association warned that Canada's health-care facilities are among the oldest public infrastructure in use. Half were built more than 50 years ago, making them especially vulnerable to extreme climate events.

RCMP escort evacuees from Fort McMurray, Alberta past wildfires that were still burning out of control Saturday, May 7, 2016. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Ryan RemiorzA wall of flames met David Matear when he finally stepped outside of the downtown Fort McMurray hospital, after the final patient was hurried out of the building and into a waiting bus.

Matear oversaw some of the work as the incident commander. He later went on to work in British Columbia, which endured terrible wildfire seasons, and helped hospitals in Manitoba and California weather waves of COVID-19. And with the number of climate-related emergencies expected to worsen in coming years, some parts of the country will need to move quickly to disaster-proof life-saving infrastructure."I think every health authority, every health ministry in every part of the country should be thinking about this."

"The results were quite surprising," he said. "Even under existing climate conditions, plenty of facilities are in high-risk flood zones." When two backup generators failed, hundreds of patients, including 20 babies from the neonatal unit, had to be evacuated from the New York City Hospital. "Adaptation measures that get ahead of the curve of increasing climate impacts on ecosystems, infrastructure, communities and health systems will need to move beyond incremental approaches to adopt transformative changes," the authors of the report said.

Of course, not every hospital will have to be fortified against every disaster, Ness said. They just need to know where the risks are.People were shocked when the wildfire tore through Fort McMurray in 2016, he said, but fires have continued to be threatening every year since. Health Canada, Transport Canada and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency issued various recalls this week. Here's what you need to know.An emotional outburst in a London, Ont. courtroom Friday disrupted the sentencing hearing of a woman who pleaded guilty for her part in the death of 29-year-old Mohammed Abdallah.American Airlines has replaced the law firm that told a judge a nine-year-old girl was negligent in not noticing there was a camera phone taped to the seat in an airplane lavatory.

An emotional outburst in a London, Ont. courtroom Friday disrupted the sentencing hearing of a woman who pleaded guilty for her part in the death of 29-year-old Mohammed Abdallah.A man is dead, and three others are in hospital after a flying wheel crashed into a coach bus on the QEW in St. Catharines.The statue of J.H. Tabaret at the University of Ottawa has been vandalized, as a picture taken by CTV News shows orange paint sprayed all over it.

 

Thank you for your comment. Your comment will be published after being reviewed.
Please try again later.
We have summarized this news so that you can read it quickly. If you are interested in the news, you can read the full text here. Read more:

 /  🏆 1. in HEALTH

Health Health Latest News, Health Health Headlines