One third of doctors would consider leaving the NT due to climate change, new study shows

More than a third of doctors in the NT would consider leaving the Territory due to climate change, according to a new study.

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MORE than a third of doctors in the NT would consider leaving the Territory due to climate change, according to a new study.

An Australian National University study, published in prestigious medical journal The Lancet Planetary Health this month, found 34 per cent of NT doctors were already, or were likely to, think about moving to cooler climates as climate change intensified.

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It also found 96 per cent believed climate change was a real and serious threat to human health, 85 per cent believed it would negatively impact their patients’ health and 74 per cent thought it would cause parts of the Territory to become uninhabitable.

Some 362 doctors – more than a quarter of those in the NT workforce – were surveyed for the study.

Lead researcher Dr Simon Quilty, who is also senior staff specialist at the Alice Springs Hospital and has worked as a doctor in the NT for the past 20 years, said the results had concerning implications for doctor recruitment and retention in the Territory.

“It could create huge problems,” he said.

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“If you’re looking at a reduction in recruitment capacity of five per cent in a place like the NT, that’s bad enough. When you’re talking about 30-34 per cent, that is potentially devastating.

“It’s not just about losing doctors, it’s the social fabric of those (impacted) towns that could be damaged in unrecognised ways.”

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