A socio-ecological resilience perspective to enhance hospital service delivery resilience to extreme weather events

摘要

Climate change-associated extreme weather events (EWEs) are becoming more pronounced in Australia, and the vulnerability of built infrastructure to these events is increasingly being recognised. The built infrastructure plays a significant role in supporting a disaster-resilient society as well as a nation's economy and quality of life. Poorly designed, constructed or maintained building and critical public infrastructure all increase the disaster risks for communities. Hospital facilities are critical infrastructure for disaster response that need to remain operational 24 hours and seven days a week. However, the capacity of many hospitals to sustain their critical service delivery during disasters has been compromised during past EWEs due to structural damage to the built infrastructure and interference to the operational capacity of the hospital itself. The unpredictability and the heightened incidences of EWEs make hospital disaster and facility adaptation more challenging, especially due to the ageing stock of the built infrastructure that was not designed with these risks in mind.