Soaring summer temperatures are placing NHS hospitals under strain comparable to their traditional winter pressures, senior health figures have warned. Zara Jones, Acting Chief Executive of Doncaster and Bassetlaw Teaching Hospitals, said heatwaves created additional demands on staff, patients and buildings, and that "operational pressures are no longer confined to winter months". The warning matters because it points to a growing, climate-driven challenge for a health service whose estate and planning have historically been geared towards cold-weather peaks.

NHS England said A&Es across the country "bore the brunt" of the May heatwave, with ambulance services facing demand "at levels never seen outside of winter", while staff struggled in buildings sometimes exceeding 30C. Research by the University of Sheffield found 90% of hospital buildings were vulnerable to overheating, with overheating incidents up 53% since 2016-17. The Doctors' Association UK has urged the government to set a maximum safe working temperature, citing a median indoor reading of 33C and peaks of 45C among reported cases. Doncaster and Bassetlaw is building a £19m critical care unit with cooling systems, due to open in early 2027, while the government noted 1.86 million attendances were dealt with within four hours in May, a decade high.