From patients needing dialysis to pregnant women seeking care, people in need of essential health services can have these disrupted by climate-related disasters, Health Minister Senator Lisa Cummins warned on Tuesday, calling for stronger coordination to protect the healthcare system.
She said: “For a minister of health at a policy level, the questions include things like whether a patient can still get to dialysis, whether medicines remain available and safely stored, whether a pregnant woman can reach care, and whether our health professionals can get to work from their own homes and families when they have also been affected by the same crises.”
Patients needing dialysis and pregnant women seeking care were among those whose access to treatment could be disrupted, she said.
Extreme weather, water scarcity and food supply disruptions were placing added pressure on Barbados, forcing the island to balance climate preparedness and recovery costs against the everyday demands of healthcare delivery, the minister added.
Senator Cummins was speaking at the opening session of the Ross University School of Medicine (RUSM) Climate & One Health Conference, held under the theme One Health, One Future: Building Resilient Communities in a Changing Climate. The conference brought together regional and international experts, policymakers, healthcare professionals, academics, students and community leaders to examine the links between human, animal and environmental health.
Attendees at the opening session of the Ross University School of Medicine (RUSM) Climate & One Health Conference. (Photo by: Shamar Blunt)
The health minister asked: “What does it take to keep a population healthy when the conditions that support health are themselves under pressure?”
She pointed to water scarcity, extreme heat, disruptions to food production, and storm damage to health facilities as examples of how climate-related challenges could affect public health and the wider economy.
“For a country like Barbados, these pressures reach into our economy and into our public finances,” she said, noting that funding had to be found for climate preparedness and recovery while maintaining the resources needed for everyday healthcare delivery.
From the health ministry’s perspective, she said, the challenges had practical implications for the country’s ability to strengthen polyclinics, protect access to medicines, support healthcare workers, and continue caring for patients during and after a crisis.
Senator Cummins stressed that climate resilience required coordinated action across the public and private sectors, as well as partnerships with social and civic organisations.
“We must work across the public sector and yes, in the private sector with all of the partners in our social and civic communities to be able to make sure that our risks are fully understood, information is shared, and most importantly, our resources and our responses are coordinated.”
She emphasised the need to keep essential services accessible when disasters affect both communities and the healthcare workforce.
Senator Cummins also urged greater attention to the relationship between climate change, food systems and health, noting that environmental and economic pressures could influence the availability and affordability of food.
Changes to soil and water conditions could affect agricultural production, while energy costs, shipping disruptions and international supply chains could influence the cost and availability of imported food, she explained.
“What is available and affordable influences the food choices that people and families are able to make.”
The challenges required practical solutions that brought agriculture, healthcare and trade closer together, the health minister said.
“That is why conferences like the ones we’re here to open today are important. We bring our experts together, and we put our hands to the plough, literally and figuratively, to be able to figure out how we can pull our agriculture, our health, and our trading systems together.”
(SB)
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