College Vice President joins UK health leaders’ cycle on climate change.

Professor Sunil Bhandari, the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh’s Vice President for England & Wales today joined thirty UK health leaders including Presidents, Vice Presidents, Chairs, Directors, and Advisors from a number of organisations in a cycle across London as part of Ride for Their Lives, a global campaign to inspire action on air pollution and the wider climate crisis. 

The London cycle, which was coordinated by the UK Health Alliance on Climate Change, brought together health leaders representing different areas of healthcare to highlight the impacts of air pollution and climate change on every area of health. The professions represented include medicine, surgery, psychiatry, paediatrics, general practice, pharmacy, chest and stroke physicians, students, and health editors.

Commenting Prof Bhandari said:

There are huge challenges around delivering sustainable health care and improving air quality but we must seek to meet these. Fundamentally, everyone deserves to be able to breathe clean air and we can take actions like encouraging our colleagues to get on their bike and consider other forms of sustainable transport.

 We must also continue to be innovative in the delivery of training and education to minimise our carbon footprint and the College is committed to making further progress in this regard.

Today was great in highlighting the importance of the UK health alliance on climate change and a need for collaboration and communication to drive the urgency and need for action and drive public health forward to address the climate crisis.

Chair of the UK Health Alliance, Richard Smith, said:

 The climate emergency is a health crisis. We want to draw attention to the threat to health from the planetary crisis but also to show that taking actions we need to take could improve health.

 Health professionals have an important voice in advocating for action to address the planetary crisis and we hope this cycle will inspire others to act.

Prof Ramesh Arasaradnam, Academic Vice President of Royal College of Physicians of London, said:

The Royal College of Physicians is proud to support UKHACC in its initiative to raise awareness of the impact of climate change on health. We have already seen the impact of air pollution on increasing the number of deaths.

As physicians, we are acutely aware that adverse changes in the climate directly affect the health and well-being of our patients. It also further widens health disparities. Hence it is a problem that we all need to work at to find a solution.

Dr. Fiona Godlee, former editor of the BMJ said:

We have to act urgently as a world to avert catastrophic consequences for human health and survival. This is going to require radical change to every aspect of how we live and work. Health professionals have a huge part to play in highlighting the dangers of the climate emergency and showing the benefits to health if we act now.

We can only do this if we work together, and Ride for Their Lives is a symbol of that vital collaboration, both in the UK and across the world. We want to inspire people to get informed about climate change and to get active in whatever capacity they can, as individuals, professionals, leaders, and citizens. We can't expect others to act if we do not.