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RESTRUCTURING Andrew Bradley – Arup


Healthy, sustainable cities: a roadmap to panacea


Andrew Bradley offers a vision of some of the options that could be adopted on a city-wide basis if wellness was to be truly integrated into the fabric of our cities in the future to help reverse many of the current global healthcare challenges such as obesity and diabetes.


Globally, we are facing challenges on a scale not seen before. For example, the global population is expected to grow by 50% by 2050; we are experiencing a transition from rural to urban communities; we are depleting our natural resources; there is an increased demand for resources from developing nations; additional stresses are being placed on health services due to increasing chronic illnesses/lifestyle illnesses; there is additional economic stress due to our ageing societies and an increase in mental health issues across the age spectrum. Our cities have developed and are


continuing to develop in a reactionary manner to accommodate these challenges. The same can also be said for the way healthcare is developing. Healthcare provision has to react to the changing needs of the community it serves. For example, Australia, which is famed for the sporty outdoor lifestyle, now has the fastest obesity growth rate in the world, following fast on the heels of the United States in its obesity rates. Australia is by no means alone with this


‘The Organization for Economic Co-operative Development (OECD) countries currently spend a median of 9% of their Gross Domestic Product (GDP) on the provision of healthcare.’


IFHE DIGEST 2013


Figure 1: Schematic showing the city of the future with an integrated wellness model adopted.


issue and most of the developed nations of the world are facing a similar obesity challenge. This indicator of modern lifestyle is changing the face of healthcare, resulting in rapid increases in chronic illnesses such as diabetes and cardiac problems. There is a clear link between obesity and


chronic illnesses. In addition there is a direct correlation with obesity, diet and exercise. Unfortunately, the focus to date has been


on treatment rather than prevention. At present, we are seeing unprecedented growth in healthcare spending in the developed nations. Most of this expenditure is dedicated


Andrew Bradley


Andrew Bradley is a Chartered Professional Engineer with nearly 20 years in the construction industry. Throughout his career, he has been responsible for the delivery a number of high profile projects, both within Australia and internationally.


Currently he leads Arup’s Building Energy Services team in Queensland, which integrates all of the key engineers and specialists required to design, manage and optimise buildings which are both energy efficient and resilient.


In addition he also leads Arup’s Buildings Healthcare team in Australasia and has experience of best practice in healthcare design.


to pharmaceuticals and maintaining or upgrading existing healthcare facilities. The Organization for Economic Co-


operative Development (OECD) countries currently spend a median of 9% of their Gross Domestic Product (GDP) on the provision of healthcare. While this is a huge sum of money for countries to continue to fund, we should consider this against the current spending of the USA which currently sits at 16% of GDP. If we look at an example in real dollars,


Australia spends $103 bn ($4,120 per person) annually on healthcare. The USA


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