Disruptions to the delivery of cancer services resulting from climate change: A British Columbia perspective

Abstract

Climate change represents a significant challenge to planetary health due to its impacts on ecosystems, biodiversity, and human communities. Extreme climate events are projected to increase in both frequency and severity, including unpredictable rainfall, storms, flooding, heatwaves, droughts, and wildfires. The impacts of these events on individuals’ health, security, and survival are likely to be significant. However, the specific effects of climate change on cancer risk, quality of life, and mortality remain largely unquantified. Climate events are considered an important challenge to the burden on cancer patients because these events cause disruptions in the delivery and quality of care to cancer patients.

During 2021, British Columbia (BC) faced two record-breaking weather events. First, during the summer, a ‘heat dome’ occurred over the final ten days of June that caused an excess of 569 deaths. Later in the same year in the southwestern region of BC, severe floods devastated communities and key transportation routes, between November and December. These major climate events have had both substantial effects on individuals’ day-to-day lives and long-term effects for many. These disruptions in healthcare services pose a risk to cancer patients; interruptions in cancer treatment of even one month represents a significant risk of lower quality of life and increased mortality.

We have yet to capture the full impact of the specific climate events such as the heat dome and flooding of 2021 on the delivery of cancer services and the corresponding patient outcomes in our province. The climate events that occurred in 2021 showed that further research is urgently needed for developing new protocols and guidelines in the Canadian healthcare system to adapt climate change.