Checklists to Assess vulnerabilities in Health Care Facilities in the Context of Climate Change

Overview

Climate change is increasingly affecting health care facilities in many settings around the world. To reduce climate change risks, health care facilities need to be resilient. Climate-resilient health care facilities are those that are able to anticipate, respond to, cope with, recover from and adapt to climate-related shocks and stress, so as to bring ongoing and sustained health care to their target populations, despite an unstable climate.

Practical tools are needed, particularly in low- and middle-income countries, to assess climate change risks and vulnerabilities on health care facilities. Although some tools exists to assess climate change and health vulnerability at the population level, this document provides specific checklists to assess  risks, vulnerabilities and impacts at the level of health care facilities.

Designed as a complementary tool to the WHO Guidance for climate-resilient and environmentally sustainable health care facilities, the primary purpose of this document is to support health care facility managers and other health workers  in establishing a baseline with regards to climate change resilience in health care facilities. It also aims to inform the design of interventions to strengthen overall resilience and conduct vulnerability assessments in health care facilities.

This document and its checklists are intended to help health care facility managers and other health workers understand the climate risks that health care facilities may face, specifically in terms of existing vulnerabilities and possible impacts, and support them in taking appropriate action.

Separate checklists are provided for a range of climate hazards: floods; storms; sea-level rise; droughts; heat waves; wildfires; and cold waves. Each checklist focuses on the following areas to assess vulnerability in health care facilities:

• Identify climate hazards of concern.
• Assess current vulnerability for each of the hazards, in each of the key components of health care facilities.
• Understand potential impacts posed by climate variability and change in each of the key components of health care facilities.

Checklists

The publication provides an overview of all checklists, as well as a guiding framework to understand and address the climate risks that health care facilities may face. Below, you can download the individual checklists for each hazard, for personal use:

Cold waves | Droughts | Floods | Heat waves

Sea-level rise | Storms | Wildfires