‘A new norm’: Heatwaves and general practice

There has been no shortage of airtime given to the heatwave currently affecting large parts of Australia.
 
Record temperatures are under threat, extreme heat warnings are in place, and it is the principal talking point for millions of people across the country.
 
With heat a bigger cause of mortality among Australians than all other natural hazards combined, for Dr Nicole Sleeman, RACGP Specific Interests Climate and Environmental Medicine Chair, the raised awareness clearly helps.
 
She says this heat places an extra burden on health services, ‘particularly general practice’.
 
‘Groups that are well-identified as being at highest risk of heat-related illness … make up the bulk of who we see in a day of general practice,’ Dr Sleeman told newsGP.
 
‘Most of our patients are at high risk of heat-related illness and are mostly unaware of it.’
 
In her work to raise more awareness still, She has been involved in Extreme Heat Awareness Day, which is on 4 February, and run by an advocacy group called Sweltering Cities.
 
‘Members of the Climate and Environmental Medicine Specific Interest Group are involved in Extreme Heat Awareness Day events across Australia, with aim to raise the profile of heat as a serious public health issue,’ she said.
 
Meanwhile Federal Representative Dr Monique Ryan has launched her own campaign to raise the profile of the deadly impact of heatwaves by naming them in the same way as tropical storms have been named since the 1960s.
 
‘I think it’s a great idea,’ Dr Sleeman said.
 
‘The risk is that if we only name extreme heat waves, then we’re not naming the heat waves which are actually causing the greatest burden on the health sector.’
 
She points to a study that used data from the Queensland Ambulance Service between 2010–19 and found an 12.68% increase in call-outs during heatwaves, with a much higher increase in low-severity heatwaves (22.16%), compared with extreme heatwaves (1.16%).
 
‘This is thought to be because people underestimate their heat risk and therefore don’t modify their behaviour until temperatures become more extreme and hit the media,’ Dr Sleeman said.
 
‘While we need to raise awareness of the dangers of extreme heat, it is critical that we raise awareness of the dangers of low-intensity heatwaves, which are becoming a new norm in our heating climate.’
 
Part of that lies firmly in the government’s remit and for Dr Sleeman must include ‘meaningful investment’ in heat adaptation measures such as a national heat and health action plan, as set out in the National Health and Climate Strategy.
 
She also sees general practice as ‘crucial’ in building a heat-resilient health sector.
 
‘We know that people underestimate their heat risk and that population-level warnings are not as effective as individualised messaging in changing an individuals’ perception of their heat-risk,’ she said.
 
‘The personalised conversations that we have with each of our patients on their heat-risk, cooling strategies and individual heat action plans, helps to build individual and community climate resilience.’
 
Among the tools that Dr Sleeman recommends is Heat Watch, a web-based app developed by Sydney University which allows people to calculate a personalised heat health risk, and then gives a list of evidence-based cooling strategies. 
 
She says that while the risk estimates are not 100% accurate, it is a ‘useful tool that GPs can use to support the communities they work in to start thinking about heat-risk and how to respond’.
 
More GP resources on climate change and health are available on the RACGP website.
 
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