By: Communications
A research project co-led by Prof Paul Hunter, from UEA’s Norwich Medical School, has been awarded more than £3 million to carry out research into improving business continuity for health services following extreme weather events.
This funding is part of more than £20 million awarded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) to eight new global health research projects, focused on healthcare in the context of extreme weather events caused by climate change. The projects aim to help strengthen health service delivery and resilience in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs).
A joint partnership led by the University of East Anglia (Prof Paul Hunter) and the Kamuzu University of Health Sciences (Dr Evanson Z Sambala), Malawi, the project is titled ‘Improving business continuity for health services following extreme weather events’.
With more than £3 million funding from NIHR, the project aims to build on key recommendations derived from the 2012 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Special Report. These include a portfolio of actions to reduce risk; a multi hazard risk management approach; and the importance of integration of local and scientific knowledge within Malawi, Vietnam, Tanzania and Uganda.
Prof Hunter said: “Although most research to date has focussed on the direct harms of extreme weather such as injury and disease, relatively little attention has been paid to the indirect health consequences as a result of the incapacitation of local health services. Our work will be focussed on how to keep health services working during and after an event so that people in affected areas can continue to receive medical care, whether or not their illnesses or injuries were caused by the weather event.”
These grants have been made through the NIHR's Research and Innovation for Global Health Transformation (RIGHT) programme; the RIGHT programme funds interdisciplinary applied health research in LMICs.
NIHR CEO Prof Lucy Chappell said: “Climate change is a real threat to health across the globe – driving natural disasters like flooding and drought and disrupting people's access to healthcare in many countries. These new research projects will help find the best ways for healthcare to adapt to extreme weather and ensure that people can still get the care they need.”
In total, there are eight newly-funded NIHR projects focusing on extreme weather challenges across multiple countries:
Improving business continuity for health services following extreme weather events
Strengthening responsiveness of health services provision to extreme weather events for urban marginalised people
Improving early warning and control of mosquito-borne disease outbreaks caused by extreme weather in Uganda
Improving primary healthcare for patients with non-communicable diseases during severe flooding in India
Encouraging preparedness, planning, community co-design, and protection of Kenya’s health system from the effects of extreme weather
Achieving Health Service Delivery Resilience During Climate-Induced Disasters among the Most Vulnerable Communities in Mozambique
Adaptations to strengthen healthcare delivery and resilience to extreme weather events in Southern Africa
Warning system for Extreme weather events, Awareness Technology for Healthcare, Equitable delivery, and Resilience (WEATHER).
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