NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde (NHSGGC) is to play a key role in pioneering research examining how climate change could affect the infrastructure and essential services people across Scotland rely on every day.
The major national study will look beyond the direct impact of extreme weather on individual organisations to examine how disruption to one part of Scotland’s infrastructure could have knock-on effects elsewhere.
For healthcare, that could mean understanding how problems affecting areas such as energy, transport, water or communications could in turn affect NHS buildings, services and the communities they serve.
NHSGGC is among organisations supporting the research through the Climate Ready Infrastructure Scotland (CRIS) Forum, which brings together infrastructure operators, public bodies and academic institutions to strengthen Scotland’s resilience to climate change.
As part of its involvement, NHSGGC will contribute healthcare expertise to the work and help shape and develop the research and its outputs.
As well as increasing understanding of the interconnected risks facing healthcare and other essential services, taking part will allow NHSGGC to strengthen collaboration and share knowledge with organisations across Scotland, helping the board plan more effectively for the impacts of climate change.
The research will examine the connections between Scotland’s critical infrastructure systems and identify points where climate-related disruption could have wider consequences.
For NHSGGC, the work will support wider climate adaptation work to better understand and prepare for the impact of climate change on healthcare. The board acknowledges the need to assess and strengthen the resilience of services and infrastructure in order to safeguard the continuity of effective healthcare delivery and is at an early stage in understanding and addressing these complex risks.
Keira McLuskey, Head of Sustainability at NHSGGC, said: “Our healthcare services don’t operate in isolation. They depend every day on power, water, transport, communications and many other services, so understanding how climate-related disruption in one area could affect another is hugely important.
“By working alongside organisations from across Scotland, we can bring a healthcare perspective to this research while also learning from the experience and expertise of other sectors.
“Ultimately, this is about making sure we understand the risks ahead and can plan effectively to keep our healthcare services as resilient as possible for the communities that depend on them.”
The study will develop a shared register of the ways Scotland’s infrastructure systems depend on one another and a model showing those connections. For NHSGGC, the proposed research outputs include a detailed place-based model illustrating how climate-related risks could cascade through infrastructure systems and affect people and services.
The wider project will use place-based case studies to explore what interconnected climate risks could mean in practice for communities, businesses and essential services.
The National Centre for Resilience at the University of Glasgow will manage the commission on behalf of the funding partners.
The project is now moving through the procurement process, with the successful supplier due to carry out the research over 12 months.
The tender for the research was issued this week and the appointment is expected around the end of November, with the Phase 1 report issued by the end of March 2027 and completion of Phase 2 by the end of September 2027.
For more about the Climate Ready Infrastructure Forum, click here.
For more information on the commission, contact nationalcentreforresilience@glasgow.ac.uk
