June’s heatwave led to an increase in deaths and a sharp rise in strokes, Southampton hospital leaders have said.
University Hospital Southampton chief executive David French said hot weather had a well-established impact on frail and elderly patients, with knock-on effects continuing after temperatures fell.
He said there had been more patients presenting at the emergency department with respiratory conditions, alongside a spike in strokes and cardiovascular problems.
Speaking at the trust board meeting on Thursday, July 9, Mr French said: “The week following the hot weather, we were continuing to see more strokes and it’s about 30 per cent more.
“We have seen that and we’re braced for it to happen again and it might be longer because the period of this heatwave is possibly longer.
“More deaths equal more pressure on mortuary services and chiller units were struggling to cope in our mortuary units so that needed quite close attention and management.”
The hospital was forced to protect its chiller capacity as temperatures soared beyond 30C in late June.
Some radiology equipment was switched off and multiple theatres were temporarily closed to avoid what Mr French described as a risk of “catastrophic failure” from chillers working flat out.
He added: “The hospital did extraordinarily well and staff proved to be resilient, understanding and wanting to do the everything for patients, but let’s be clear this was a really difficult time for everybody, including the patients in the hospital.”
r French said humidity was also a key factor, particularly for modern radiology equipment such as MRI scanners, which are designed to shut down automatically if conditions exceed safe limits.
Mr French added: “If we were able to air condition, we would and the constraint is not finances.
“It’s the electrical supply capacity into the hospital.
“Where we could, we were air conditioning but I think every kilowatt counts towards the total.
“Staff were understanding of that but boy it was hot and humid on those wards.”
The trust also faced workforce pressures, with school closures forcing some staff to make childcare arrangements at short notice.
Chief operating officer Andy Hyett said teams had applied lessons from the June heatwave through an action plan which was being implemented in the current hot weather.
Mr Hyett said: “This was the first red health warning for this area and the longest one, so we should stop beating ourselves up too much about what we’ve learned and what we should have known in advance.”
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