Resilient Cities Reimagining Health

As global healthcare companies, we have the privilege, and responsibility, of supporting the health of millions of people worldwide.

Yet, we’re part of a health system that is facing ever increasing strain, with rising rates of chronic disease, ageing populations, and increasing costs of care. In the 21st century, 4.5 bn people around the world lack reliable access to healthcare, and 2.1 bn lack access to safely managed drinking water.1,2 Climate change, now widely regarded as one of the greatest threats to human health, is exacerbating these challenges, with vulnerable and low-income communities bearing the greatest burden. At the same time, health systems are contributing to worsening the climate crisis – responsible for approximately 4.5% of total global net emissions.

Now is the time to break this cycle. As pressures on our health and health systems grow, we urgently need to rethink our approach to healthcare. We need to transition away from reliance on just treating people when they are sick, to a more holistic approach, which reaches people before they become patients, placing much greater emphasis on keeping people well, for longer. As we instinctively recognise but often struggle to prioritise in policy or in practice, good health and wellbeing begin not in hospitals and clinics but in our homes, habits and communities.

Reimagining healthcare means keeping people healthier for longer, looking beyond hospitals and clinics and tackling the broader factors that affect people’s health. This includes supporting individuals and communities to take charge of their own wellbeing through self-care, using new technology to make care easier to reach, more efficient, and personalised. It also involves supporting communities as they deal with the growing challenges of environmental change.

Cities can be a key driving force to lead this change. 70% of the global population will live in urban settings by 2050. Also, city authorities can bring together key public and private actors to drive many of the needed changes. But cities have told us that they need help in making the case for investing in health and drive this preventative agenda. Here’s the opportunity.

Reimagining health in this way is not optional. It is one of the most powerful levers we have to build a healthier, more sustainable future - for people, for communities, and for the planet we all share.

This initiative builds on the important work already undertaken by the Sustainable Markets Initiative Health Systems Task Force, which, since its inception at COP26 in Glasgow, has brought together leading voices from across the sector, to help build cleaner, better health systems. As members of this group, Reckitt and Bupa are fully committed to contribute to reducing emissions from the health systems we’re part of, starting with our own operations and supply chains.

Resilient Cities, Reimagining Health is one strand of that effort - translating the Task Force’s vision, into practical, city-level action on prevention and resilience. Our work, together with an incredible array of committed and expert partners, is focused on helping to safeguard health, reduce growing pressures on health systems, and lower the cost of care for people and our planet.

This report is just the beginning of our programme. It is a huge privilege to be working in partnership with a network of cities, from Rio de Janeiro, to Lagos, Mexico City, to Greater Manchester, and many more besides, that together represent almost 120 million lives world-wide.

We know this is not a silver bullet. Preventative health is one vital part of a much wider set of solutions needed to protect human and planetary health. But this work offers huge potential to shape health outcomes in communities around the globe, defining practical recommendations that cities can act on now.

Together, we have an opportunity to help lead the long overdue global shift in healthcare systems from reaction to resilience.