Hospitals in England declare critical incidents as machines and IT fail in heat

NHS buildings must be upgraded to withstand extreme heat, said the clinical vice-president of the Royal College of Physicians. Photograph: Jeff Moore/PA View image in fullscreen NHS buildings must be upgraded to withstand extreme heat, said the clinical vice-president of the Royal College of Physicians. Photograph: Jeff Moore/PA Hospitals in England declare critical incidents as machines and IT fail in heat Extreme weather breaks MRI scanners and cooling units, as workload rises for sleep-deprived staff on sweltering wards Doctors have sounded the alarm over the disastrous impact of extreme heat on the NHS in England , with radiotherapy machines and MRI scanners failing, critical IT systems stalling and cooling units that serve entire hospitals breaking down. The hot weather has also prompted a surge in admissions and people arriving at A&E, causing severe overcrowding in some places and exacerbating heat-related pressures on infrastructure. “Lots of people, especially older patients, are turning up having collapsed or with dehydration,” one physician said. “In terms of inpatients, the conditions are awful due to overcrowding. Very few places have air conditioning and staff are really struggling.” Older patients in one geriatric ward had been forced to endure temperatures as high as 35C, a second doctor said. Even wards with built-in air conditioning were affected, as some units were shut down to prevent them being damaged by the extreme heat. ‘It’s dangerous’: how schools, care homes and other UK workplaces are coping in searing heat Read more Another doctor said their workplace was “unfit to cope”, with patients and staff experiencing “awful conditions” in sweltering wards, clinics and corridors. NHS staff were also navigating the challenge of delivering care while sleep-deprived. Like much of the UK population, many have struggled to sleep this week. Several NHS trusts in England have declared critical incidents as a direct result of the extreme heat. One hospital had done so after its machines failed in multiple areas, a doctor said. Labs used for testing were also affected and two linear accelerator machines, used to treat cancer patients, had stopped working amid the high temperatures. The doctor said that, although they were working in a relatively new care setting, it was “tacked on to an old Victorian hospital”, creating severe infrastructure challenges. “It’s hopeless, really,” they said. The doctor also said their NHS trust had faced “major issues” with IT servers overheating on Wednesday. “We thought we were going to lose everything, so we were all asked to turn off non-essential computers and electrical equipment, including lights.” In Portsmouth, the Queen Alexandra hospital declared a critical incident after extreme heat caused cooling units to fail, leading to “elevated temperatures” across the hospital. The failure of the cooling units affected the hospital’s digital systems and critical clinical services, including operating the