Soaring temperatures, but staff take on water

bmj;378/aug17_11/o2036/FAF1faMark ThomasAs the Office of National Statistics’ latest figures revealed 1680 total excess deaths in the week ending 22 July—during which temperatures hit 40°C in England—staff in the NHS were again facing the heat last weekend as temperatures across the UK rose to highs of 36°C.Advice to keep themselves and patients hydrated with water and to stay cool, sometimes with ice cream donated by local businesses, seems to have helped this time around.But for Hassan Ali Beg, a cardiology registrar at the James Cook University Hospital, part of the South Tees Hospitals Trust, the NHS needs to be looking to the future.“We have to be cognisant of climate change and the extra heatwaves that are going to come with that,” he said. “We need to make sure hospitals have good ventilation”—which he said would also help to deal with covid and any future pandemics.
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