hospitals

Results of one of the focus groups in the pilot region Dresden. Healthcare workers were invited to talk about heatwaves, their experience with and what could help to handle them.

In Madrid’s Severo Ochoa Hospital, a pilot project uses a booster heat pump to capture and upgrade waste heat from the hospital’s cooling chillers for district heating—reducing reliance on cooling towers and improving energy efficiency year-round.

This study demonstrates how an energy audit of a university building in Italy informed strategies to improve Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning (HVAC) performance, enhance indoor environmental quality, and reduce energy consumption through targeted retrofitting measures.

Equipping hospital rooms with radiant cooling at a constant comfortable temperature notably quickens discharge, stabilizes vital signs, reduces fluid consumption, and boosts activity levels in patients with respiratory conditions during summer months.

This study shows how the 2019 heatwave disrupted hospital care in England, highlighting infrastructure weaknesses, staff awareness gaps, and competing priorities, and calls for stronger adaptation planning and investment to build health system resilience to extreme heat.

This document provides practical guidance for UK acute care clinicians to prepare for and manage the health impacts of extreme heat, focusing on protecting vulnerable patients, adapting clinical practice, and maintaining safe hospital environments during heatwaves.