Analysing health system capacity and preparedness for climate change

While increasing literature demonstrating the direct and indirect impacts of climate change focuses on health, the capacity and preparedness of healthcare systems to deal with these impacts are less frequently considered. Here we performed a systematic analysis of peer-reviewed and grey literature to assess the current and projected coping capacity for healthcare systems under climate change. Data from the 129 included publications focused broadly on seven topics: workforce, tools and frameworks, infrastructure and urban planning, communication, surge capacity and increased system burden, service interruption and financial costs. Publications were biased towards high-level representation of acute disaster events, particularly in Global North countries. Non-peer-reviewed literature such as policy and planning documents, which may offer further insights into preparedness, were under-represented and could be a feature of next-generation research. Health systems need to be future proofed through effective policies, adequately trained workforces and redesigned infrastructure to meet the increasing burdens of climate change. The authors perform a meta-analysis to assess current and future capacities of healthcare systems under climate change. They summarize the key focus points of current literature and highlight the need for effective policies, trained workforces and redesigned infrastructure to meet future burdens.