Strengthening NHS resilience through climate risk management
Categories: Action Line 1: Surveillance and monitoring, Assessments of climate and health risks and GHG emissions, Health systems wide resilience
Country: United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
Organizations: Greener NHS
The intervention
The NHS Climate Change Risk Assessment (CCRA) is a structured approach used by NHS organisations across the UK to evaluate, plan for, and mitigate the impacts of climate change on healthcare delivery.
The NHS Climate Change Risk Assessment (CCRA) tool supports NHS trusts, system leaders and other NHS organisations to:
- Identify climate-related risks specific to their operations
- Understand their potential impact on healthcare delivery
- Plan a response through identifying potential adaptations
- Progress towards NHS net zero commitments
- Maintain service continuity during climate disruptions
It is complemented by the Climate Adaptation Framework, which supports NHS organisations in building capacity and organisational resilience.
The NHS CCRA and Climate Adaptation Framework collectively provide a robust, practical, and actionable system for evaluating climate risks and implementing adaptation measures within the NHs in England. These tools help NHS organisations maintain continuity of care, protect assets and people, and align with net-zero and sustainability goals under evolving climate challenges.
Success factors
The NHS Climate Change Risk Assessment Tool is specifically tailored to health services and includes both climate-related risks and known impacts derived from real-world events and case studies.
An initial version of the NHS Climate Change Risk Assessment tool was piloted with a diverse range of NHS trusts to be tested and evaluated. This learning was incorporated into the published version of the tool to improve useability and application. The CCRA tool has been adopted by several NHS trusts.
The NHS CCRA tool enables a diverse range of NHS stakeholders, representing different elements of the health workforce, to come together to holistically understand potential impacts on healthcare deliver and identify effective mitigations.
The NHS CCRA tool enables health service leaders develop climate change adaptation plans, as part of their Green Plans, the strategic initiative aimed at reducing the environmental impact of the NHS and supporting health system resilience.
Recommendations
Several factors have proven successful:
- Developing a tool which is specifically tailored to the health system, which includes both climate hazards and evidence-based healthcare impacts.
- Piloting and evaluating the tool with a diverse range of healthcare settings and ensuring learning is incorporated into the final tool and associated resources (e.g. user guide).
- Driving action through enabling collaboration across a diverse range of the health workforce to support a robust risk assessment and adaptation planning.
- Link the completion of the Climate Change Risk Assessment tool with broader adaptation and mitigation action (e.g., incorporation into Green Plans).
Key resources
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