Extreme Heat in the NHS

Doctors' Association UK analysed 1,111 survey responses from doctors and other healthcare workers during the June 2026 heatwave. The responses show that extreme heat is not being experienced as a minor comfort issue. Respondents repeatedly described a direct effect on patient care, clinical decision-making, medicines storage, equipment reliability and staff wellbeing.

The quantitative findings are stark: 95.6% of respondents said their workplace was at least uncomfortably warm and 83.3% described it as very hot or dangerously hot. 94.1% reported no air conditioning or only partial air conditioning. 68.3% said patient safety had been affected, while 86.9% said they or colleagues had felt unwell because of the heat. 89.8% supported a legal maximum safe working temperature.

The free-text evidence provides the detail behind these numbers. Respondents described patients self-discharging because of heat, frail and febrile patients left in hot wards and corridors, operating theatres and recovery areas becoming unsafe, staff fainting or vomiting at work, and inadequate access to cold drinking water. Many also described estates failures, including heating left on, poor ventilation, malfunctioning air conditioning and clinical equipment affected by heat and humidity.