NIHR helping health and social care delivery adapt to climate change

UK News

The National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) has awarded almost £700,000 to seven research projects aimed at helping UK health and social care services adapt to the impacts of climate change and extreme weather. The funding supports early‑stage development work focused on strengthening climate resilience across care systems, including improving preparedness for extreme heat, floods and storm surges, which increasingly disrupt hospitals, care homes, community services and access to essential facilities.

The projects will build research capacity, develop stronger partnerships between academics and health/social care professionals, and identify evidence gaps around how extreme weather affects infrastructure, staffing and service delivery—particularly for vulnerable populations. Each project can receive up to £100,000 and may progress to larger NIHR Climate Change and Health Research Collaboration Awards, offering up to £2 million for programme‑level research.

Overall, the initiative represents a major long‑term investment by NIHR and the Department of Health and Social Care to embed climate resilience into the future of UK health and social care. [nationalhe…cutive.com]

NIHR helping health and social care delivery adapt to climate change | UK Healthcare News

The Health Foundation

NHS Workforce Projections 2022

Source: The King’s Fund

This analysis shows that the NHS in England could face a shortfall of around 38,000 full time equivalent (FTE) registered nurses by 2023/24 relative to the numbers needed to deliver pre-pandemic levels of care. This is despite the expectation that the government could meet its own target of recruiting an additional 50,000 FTE registered NHS nurses by the end of the parliament. It argues that the government needs to acknowledge the growing demand for care driven by an ageing population and an increased number of people with complex health conditions. It also explores potential gaps in the nursing workforce over a longer time period beyond the next election.