The UK has (so far) experienced five heatwaves in one summer. Record temperatures have been repeatedly broken and in the June heatwave records show that the London Ambulance Service responded to a record number of life-threatening emergencies, the highest in its history. (1,2) 

From the UKHSA’s Health Effects of Climate Change report, we know we can expect tens of thousands of deaths annually by 2050 under current emissions trajectories. (3) 

While we await the figures of excess deaths during the recent heatwaves, we know from first-hand experiences that staff and patients have suffered unbearable working conditions, and patient safety was critically compromised across the country. Doctors Association UK collated some of these experiences to present the direct risks to patient safety that have been experienced of late: 

A total of 1,111 NHS staff of all professions responded to our rapid, snapshot survey:

• 94.1% reported no, or only partially working air conditioning in their main clinical area. Less than 5% reported air conditioning throughout their area.
• 83.3% described their workplace as very hot or dangerously hot, with 42% describing it as dangerously hot.
• 68.3% felt heat had affected patient care and safety
• 86.9% felt they or their colleagues had felt unwell because of the heat
• 89.8% would support a legal maximum workplace temperature for healthcare facilities
• There were 367 exact temperature reports, ranging from 19-45C. 86.9% of reports were at least 30C. It is worth noting the UKHSA recommends ward temperatures no higher than 26-28C. (4,5) 

Free text responses describe patients developing dehydration, heat stroke, staff members collapsing, difficulty in concentrating while making complex decisions and working conditions being described as ‘horrendous and unbearable for both patients and staff’.

Some examples of experiences include:

• “A nurse collapsed on the ward, everyone is working with wet pads or gloves filled with water on their necks, a colleague had to shower at midday and all the lights on some wards have been turned off to keep it cool.”
• “Burning hot while having to make vital decisions about the care of very vulnerable and clinically unstable patients. Doing CPR in a poorly ventilated room was almost impossible and we all had to regularly switch out.”
• “Temperatures were so high that patients were getting temperatures, families were complaining and staff were calling in sick or had headaches, felt sick and dizzy… Staff resorted to wetting pillow cases and putting them on patients and themselves to cool down.” 
• “I can no longer care for patients safely. Septic patients are left in corridors with ambient temperatures of 33 degrees. 2 members of staff went home sick today.”
• “The building is unbearably hot even when there isn’t a heatwave due to poor ventilation. With the heatwave, it’s been hard to breathe and it makes me feel tired… I also feel worried for patients who are more frail and less able to tolerate the heat coming into the building as it is stiflingly hot for them. We should have a safe maximum working temperature in the UK and employers should be obligated to have adequate cooling measures on site such as air conditioning.”
• “My colleague who is 8 months pregnant was expected to work on a ward with no air conditioning where it was so hot I felt unwell never mind her. We were not provided with any air conditioning units or fans unless staff brought them in themselves. The only measures management put in place was to tell us to take a 5 minute break every hour, but there was nowhere to go in that 5 minutes to cool down. I left every day feeling overheated, had a headache and nausea. All of my patients on the COTE ward were flat, some delirious due to being kept on a ward with no AC. I heard from colleagues across the hospital treating patients from heat exhaustion due to lack of AC.”
• “Patients are too hot to engage with [occupational and physical] therapy so no progress is made towards discharge and patients are staying in hospital longer.”
• “Old hospital heating still on full blast as unable to turn old radiators down”
• “We have patients brought in due to severe heat stroke who are not able to be treated appropriately because there is nowhere cool to put them.”

The suffering experienced by staff and patients these heatwaves are entirely avoidable had there been effective climate adaptation and mitigation earlier. Indeed, this is preventable from happening again. 

Contrary to some unhelpful news reports, the ongoing heatwaves are not exceptional, not unique, and should not be viewed as the ‘new normal’. They are the latest baseline of extreme weather events that we will experience and that we are simply not prepared for.

Successive Governments have failed to invest in NHS infrastructure and have not treated climate change as the threat to public safety that it is.  Current political leaders should not be the latest to allow such harms to come to patients again. 

The following suggestions would make vast improvements to current practice:

1. A legal maximum safe working temperature for hospitals and GP surgeries, in line with the UKHSA’s recommendations for safe working temperatures for inpatient settings. 
2. Urgent investment in cooling mechanisms, such as air conditioning, to provide the ability to all healthcare settings to reduce air temperatures to safer working temperatures. 
3. Urgent investment in insulation and energy efficiency, to provide more consistent temperatures year-round. 
4. Encourage employers to treat high air temperatures as significant health risks to staff and provide appropriate rest, cooling and hydration facilities.

Legislated maximum working temperatures are common across the world, including in countries such as Belgium, Brazil, Qatar and South Africa.(6) Introducing similar, appropriate legislation to keep healthcare workers, patients and workers across all industries safe is now a necessity, given the regularity and intensity of heatwaves we continue to experience due to climate change. 

Additionally, we urge political leaders to take an accelerated program of high impact climate crisis education and action, treating climate change as the number one threat to public health:

1. Deliver an urgent, public health campaign on the relationship between climate change and health
2. Accelerate the UK’s decarbonisation targets and include a target of ensuring every health facility has solar energy installations, such as solar car parks, to mitigate climate change and offset increased energy requirements and costs due to air conditioning
3. Accelerate the restoration of nature to rapidly expand greenspaces around healthcare facilities to mitigate against heatwaves and other extreme weather events. 

Healthcare professionals have an ethical obligation to never abandon our patients. One would assume governments would feel similarly about their citizens, and they can demonstrate this by taking rapid, proactive measures to keep patients and staff safe in heatwaves. 

This new Prime Minister and his Government could be the government to prevent these stories recurring.

A failure to act will cost even more lives. 

We (at Doctors Association UK), and others in the healthcare community, are ready to support politicians to take bold action to keep us all safe. 

References:

1. Met Office. UK could see 45°C by 2056, scientists reflect on 1976 heatwave anniversary [Internet]. 2026 Jun 23 [cited 2026 Jun 29]. Available from: https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/blog/2026/uk-could-see-45c-by-2056-scientists-reflect-on-1976-heatwave-anniversary
2. London Ambulance Service NHS Trust. London Ambulance Service breaks record for busiest ever week during the heatwave [Internet]. 2026 Jun 29 [cited 2026 Jun 29]. Available from: https://www.londonambulance.nhs.uk/2026/06/29/london-ambulance-service-breaks-record-for-busiest-ever-week-during-the-heatwave/
3. UK Health Security Agency. Health Effects of Climate Change (HECC) in the UK: 2023 report. Chapter 2: temperature effects on mortality in a changing climate [Internet]. London: UK Health Security Agency; 2023 [cited 2026 Jun 29]. Available from: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/659ff712e96df5000df844bf/HECC-report-2023-chapter-2-temperature.pdf
4. UK Health Security Agency, Centre for Climate and Health Security. Heat-Health Alert action card for health and social care providers [Internet]. London: GOV.UK; 2025 Feb 18 [updated 2026 May 21; cited 2026 Jun 29]. Available from: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/heat-health-alert-action-card-for-health-and-social-care-providers
5. Brooks K, Landeg O, Kovats S, Sewell M, OConnell E. Heatwaves, hospitals and health system resilience in England: a qualitative assessment of frontline perspectives from the hot summer of 2019. BMJ Open. 2023 Mar 6;13(3):e068298. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2022-068298. PMID: 36878654; PMCID: PMC9990610.
6. International Labour Organization. Ensuring safety and health at work in a changing climate. Geneva: International Labour Office; 2024. Available from: https://www.ilo.org/sites/default/files/2024-07/ILO_SafeDay24_Report_r11.pdf

Author

Matthew Lee

Dr Matthew Lee is a paediatric resident doctor in North Wales. Over the last 5 years, as Sustainability Lead for Doctors’ Association UK, he has coordinated multiple national campaigns on climate change and health, notably developing the online resource, Our Health, Our Planet. He is currently seconded part-time to the Welsh Government’s Health and Social Care Climate Emergency National Programme on “Climate Smart Education”.

He was Deputy Special Advisor on Climate Change and Healthcare Sustainability to the Royal College of Physicians 2023-25, prior to commencing paediatric training. He holds an MSc in Environment and Human Health and is an honorary lecturer at Cardiff University.

Declaration of Interests
Dr Matthew Lee volunteers as the Sustainability Lead for Doctors’ Association UK. He is also undertaking a part-time paid secondment to the Welsh Government’s Climate Smart Education Program.