Nurses in the UK are fainting due to extreme heat in buildings unsuitable for high temperatures. The alert comes from the Royal College of Nursing (RCN), which highlighted the urgency of adaptation measures so that hospitals and homes for the elderly can operate without posing a risk to healthcare professionals and their patients.
Nurses report “inhumane” heat in UK hospitals and care homes
Nurses in the UK are fainting due to extreme heat in buildings unsuitable for high temperatures. The alert comes from the Royal College of Nursing (RCN), which highlighted the urgency of adaptation measures so that hospitals and homes for...
According to the entity, professionals have reported cases in which temperatures exceed 30oC in hospital wards and nursing homes across the country. Most of these buildings do not have air conditioning equipment or fans.
- In some, windows cannot even be opened, which turns them into greenhouses without any air circulation.
- "Our ward doesn't have air conditioning, so we're all going through a lot of hardship.
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According to the entity, professionals have reported cases in which temperatures exceed 30oC in hospital wards and nursing homes across the country. Most of these buildings do not have air conditioning equipment or fans. In some, windows cannot even be opened, which turns them into greenhouses without any air circulation.
"Our ward doesn't have air conditioning, so we're all going through a lot of hardship. We've had hot summers before, but I don't remember working in conditions like this," one nurse told the Guardian. “It gets to the point where you dread going to work.”
For Nicola Ranger, chief executive of the RCN, hospitals are becoming an “impossible and inhumane” place to work or receive care. “Climate change is not an abstract concept, but a serious threat to people’s health and the services on which they depend,” he highlighted, cited by Bloomberg.
At least in the short term, there is no expectation of relief for the British. Data from the Met Office indicates that the UK experienced its hottest day of the year yesterday (13/8), with a provisional high of 38.1oC in southern England. According to the Guardian, thermometers exceeded 40oC in Kew Gardens, in southwest London.
The United Kingdom, like much of Western Europe, has been experiencing its 5th heatwave since May. As the AP points out, thermometers reached close to 41oC in several areas of France, from Aquitaine, in the southwest, to the Rhone River valley, in the east. According to AFP, more than 135 million Europeans are suffering from the intense heat, with temperatures rising above 30oC for almost three in five European residents.
The recurrence of extreme heat this summer is exhausting the patience of Europeans. The New York Times shows how high temperatures are transforming summer, historically the favorite season of the year for most Europeans, into a hellish, feared and exhausting time.