Department of Psychology, College of Human Sciences, University of South Africa, Pretoria, South Africa; and, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (UMR IDEES), University of le Havre, Le Havre.
Afr J Prim Health Care Fam Med. 2022 Mar 30;14(1):e1-e12. doi: 10.4102/phcfm.v14i1.3203.
Climate change presents an unprecedented and urgent threat to human health and survival. South Africa's health response will require a strong and effective intersectoral organisational effort.
Exploratory interview outcomes are used to advance practice and policy recommendations, as well as for broad input in the development of a draft national framework for a health risk and vulnerability assessment (RVA) for national departments.
Nationally in South Africa.
Twenty key expert interviews were conducted with South African experts in the field of climate change and health. Interview data was analysed by means of thematic content analysis.
Findings suggest that previously poor communities are most at risk to the impacts of climate change on health, as well as those with underlying medical conditions. Climate change may also serve as a catalyst for improving the healthcare system overall and should serve as the conduit to do so. A draft climate change and health RVA should take into account existing frameworks and should be implemented by local government. It is also critical that the health and health system impacts from climate change are well understood, especially in light of the plans to implement the (South African) National Health Insurance (NHI) scheme.
Practice and policy initiatives should be holistic in nature. Consideration should be given to forming a South African National Department of Climate Change, or a similar coordinating body between the various national departments in South Africa, as health intercepts with all other domains within the climate change field.
气候变化对人类健康和生存构成了前所未有的紧迫威胁。南非的卫生应对措施需要强有力且有效的跨部门组织努力。
探索性访谈结果用于推进实践和政策建议，并为制定国家卫生风险和脆弱性评估（RVA）框架草案提供广泛的投入，该草案适用于国家各部门。
南非全国。
对南非气候变化和健康领域的 20 名专家进行了 20 次关键专家访谈。通过主题内容分析对访谈数据进行分析。
研究结果表明，以前的贫困社区最容易受到气候变化对健康的影响，以及那些患有潜在疾病的社区。气候变化也可能成为改善整个医疗保健系统的催化剂，应该以此为途径。一份关于气候变化和健康的 RVA 草案应考虑到现有的框架，并应由地方政府实施。了解气候变化对健康和卫生系统的影响也至关重要，特别是考虑到实施（南非）国家健康保险（NHI）计划的计划。
实践和政策举措应该具有整体性。应该考虑成立南非国家气候变化部，或者在南非的各个国家部门之间建立类似的协调机构，因为卫生部门与气候变化领域的所有其他领域都有交叉。
