The Cost of Cold

Today a respected UK charity released estimates of the death toll and the cost to the NHS of cold homes nationwide. These figures are included in The Cost of Cold (pdf).

It is a shocking state of affairs. The NHS is spending roughly £1.4bn per year treating conditions brought on my cold living conditions. Even after this expenditure  roughly twenty seven thousand people a year die from conditions brought on by the combination of shoddy housing stock and high energy prices.

While energy prices always hit the headlines, insulation and draftproofing are the less glamorous solutions that need more funding. For this reason Age UK has launched Spread the Warmth.

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EON you are right! Coal Is Cheap.

As long as you ignore the health cost...

The Department received over three quarters of a million claims from former miners, their widows, or their estates for COPD (592,000) and VWF (170,000). By the time all the claims have been settled, the Department estimates that it will have paid some £4.1 billion in compensation.

The schemes posed a formidable challenge. Many claimants were elderly, ill and anxious to receive their compensation. The number of claims greatly exceeded the Department’s initial forecasts of 173,000 COPD and 45,000 VWF claims. It was ill prepared for the number, and in some cases complexity, of claims made. Consequently some claimants have had to wait as long as ten years or more. In 2005, to address significant backlogs the Department, in negotiation with solicitors, introduced a fast track arrangement to process COPD claims. By September 2007, there were around 116,000 COPD claims and 12,000 VWF claims remaining to be settled. The Department is seeking to process most of the remaining VWF claims by March 2008 and COPD claims by February 2009.

The schemes were costly to administer. By completion, administration costs, including contractor and medical costs, are expected to total almost £2.3 billion. Claimants’ solicitors and other representatives’ fees account for just under £1.3 billion of this total. The Department’s negotiation of the fees with solicitors was weak, with the result that it paid fees significantly in excess of costs. Some solicitors have also levied additional fees on successful claimants.

And then there is the cost to peoples livelyhoods caused by climate change, and the loss of millions of species, and the threat to global peace and security. In fact you could say coal is cheap for eon but costly for society. Perhaps we should ban it and save our money, our planet and our health?

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Carbon reduction and health: London, Monday 30 June 2008

Just an update as part of my 'conference watch' initiative (just invented).

A significant conference for all medics with an interest in climate change is to be held on Monday 30th of June at Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health 5-11 Theobald’s Road, London, WC1X 8SH

The conference entitled Carbon Reduction and Health is designed to answer three sets of questions:

1. Heading for a Carbon Neutral NHS?
2. Wanting to cut your hospital’s Carbon footprint?
3. Tired of waste and pollution in the Health Service?

These questions will be aswered with a series of pesentations on:

1. how to make your trust carbon neutral
2. carbon friendly conferencing
3. the green office
4. the public health imperative

The days program:

• 0845-0930 Registration and Coffee

MORNING SESSION: Planning it Chairman: Professor Alan Maryon Davis, President, Faculty of Public Health

• 0930-0940 Introduction Dr Patricia Hamilton, President, Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health
• 0940-1010 The public health imperative
  Dr Alan Maryon Davis, President, Faculty of Public Health
• 1010-1040 The carbon footprint of the health sector Dr David Pencheon, NHS SD unit
• 1040 Discussion
• 1100-1120 Coffee & Press Conference
• 1120-1150 Making the change – what support is available? Dr Tom Cumberledge,
  Carbon Trust
• 1150-1230 How are we doing it: effecting change within organisations
  - a commercial organisation: how we engaged the workforce
  - an Acute Trust
  - A General Practice
  - A Royal College
• 1230-1300 Discussion
• 1300-1345 Lunch

AFTERNOON SESSION: Doing it Chairman: Dr Fiona Godlee, Editor, BMJ

• 1345-1415 A new concept in conferencing Brian Murray, BT
• 1410-1420 Speaking from a distance: perils of climate change
  Hugh Montgomery
• 1420-1445 Offsetting: myth or reality? A debate Mayer Hillman, Policy Studies Institute & Julian Knight, Chairman of Coolaworld.
• 1445-1600 Workshops (35 minutes each. Choice of 2)
  (a) How to measure a carbon footprint
  (b) The Green Office (including green energy)
  (c) Health Service Procurement
  (d) GPs
  (e) Media advocacy – how to influence
  (f) Conferencing BT
• 1600-1615 Tea
• 1615-1645 Panel on greening the NHS and closing remarks

For futher information or to book your ticket see the Royal Society for Pediatrics and Child Health events listing for 30th of June.

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Climate change could kill thousands in UK by 2012, says report.

Via The Guardian (article)

Climate change could lead to a heatwave in the south-east of England killing 3,000 people by 2012, a Department of Health report says.

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