Climate Resilient Healthcare System in India

Climate change is known to have deleterious effects on human health, environment and wellbeing. The consequences of public health of natural and man-made disasters are complex and varying. With the diverse agro-climatic systems, India faces a variety of climate risks such as temperature extremes, precipitation extremes, cyclones, dust and hailstorms, frost, and a variety of secondary disasters such as forest fires, landslides, pest attacks, disease outbreak epidemics, pandemics and so on. It's becoming clear that environmental and climate influences play a key role in spreading various diseases around the world, affecting public health responses and systems. Poor air quality also appears to be associated with more severe health outcomes and the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has added emergent new dimensions to public health crisis. The current healthcare system, facilities, and services seem to be insufficient and unprepared to cope with the evolving and multiplying risk scenarios. Disaster health implications are best addressed by enhancing health systems resilience through a well-designed systemic mechanism. The National Health Adaptation Plan for disaster of India related illnesses has been developed involving a systemic, consultative and science-policy integrated approach, aiming for the resilient healthcare system by prioritizing budget allocation and strengthening the existing gap areas. This is a model approach that will help with the integration of health dimensions into the existing response, development and disaster management plans.