Health chiefs are warning of the impact the heatwave is having on services as they face significantly more life-threatening emergency calls with record-breaking temperatures continuing to scorch the country.
Record Temperatures and Warnings
Rare red warnings remain in place on Friday after Thursday provisionally became the UK’s hottest June day on record, with 36.7C recorded in Merryfield, Somerset. Temperatures could reach 36C in London and 35C in Manchester on Friday, with Belfast and Cardiff looking at potential highs of 26C.
The Met Office extended its red warning until 9pm on Friday for London and parts of east and South East England, stretching across Oxfordshire and Bedfordshire, Hampshire and Kent – the first time it has issued red heat warnings over three consecutive days. An amber heat warning is in place for a wider area on Friday, running to midnight and taking in the East Midlands, East of England, North West, South West, West Midlands and Yorkshire and Humber. Swathes of Scotland, England, Wales and Northern Ireland face yellow warnings for thunderstorms on Friday.
NHS Under Strain
The London Ambulance Service (LAS) responded to its highest number of life-threatening emergencies ever on Wednesday, and its chief operating officer Craig Harman said he expects “demand to grow day on day over the next couple of days.” LAS on Wednesday saw a 50% increase in life-threatening emergency calls compared with a typical Wednesday in June, with the number of cardiac arrests up 30%.
Jason Killens, LAS chief executive, reiterated the point on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme on Friday morning that extreme heat can affect anyone, not just those with existing health conditions. “To coin a phrase, we’ve thrown the kitchen sink at this week,” he said. “All non-essential training, non-essential meetings have been cancelled. Clinical colleagues who aren’t routinely deployed on the front line have been deployed back on the front line.”
Several hospitals have declared critical incidents, with University Hospital Southampton being forced to cancel a number of planned operations and some outpatient appointments. Dr Hilary Williams, clinical vice-president of the Royal College of Physicians, told Today the intense heat exposes how poor the infrastructure of the health service is. “When you go round hospitals, very, very few hospitals are new,” she said. “We’ve kind of bolted things in car parks, we’ve added an extra wing on here, we’ve changed a corridor into a ward, and those places just aren’t coping with the demands of extreme heat. The patients are far too hot. We’re hearing reports of elderly care wards way over 30C.” Dr Williams also said some critical machinery, such as MRI scanners and linear accelerators that treat cancer, have gone down due to the heat.
A hospital close to where the Wimbledon tennis championships begin on Monday has issued a warning that it may face increased demand for emergency services. Nicola Shopland, chief nurse at St George’s Hospital in Tooting, south London, said: “Wimbledon brings people together and we’re so lucky to have it on our doorstep – we want people to enjoy it but also be safe by taking simple actions such as staying hydrated, keeping cool and wearing sunscreen.”
Impact on Daily Life
Schools and nurseries have been forced to close and a hosepipe ban has been brought in for Kent amid surging demand. Train passengers are being urged to avoid non-essential travel across much of England on Friday, with Network Rail saying services operating in the Met Office’s red and amber zones should only be used “if absolutely necessary.” The RAC said for the third day running its patrols had gone out on Thursday to 20% more breakdowns than usual for late June, and it expects the same level of need on Friday. RAC road safety spokesperson Rod Dennis said: “Oxfordshire, Northamptonshire, the south coast and Essex all recorded breakdown volumes well above what’s normal. Although the weather is set to cool in the next few days, we’re not out of the woods yet with the fierce summer heat continuing to affect south and eastern parts of the country. Our advice remains to only travel for essential trips.”
Courts have also been affected, with the cells at Bristol Crown Court closed because of the heat and defendants moved to Bristol Magistrates’ Court where it was thought to be cooler. The sentencing of six defendants for a firearms conspiracy – including one of Pc Sharon Beshenivsky’s killers Faizal Razzaq – could not go ahead on Friday because the dock at newly refurbished Harrow Crown Court was too hot. Security staff said they were not allowed to put a fan in the dock, and the hearing could not start until the temperature dropped below 26C. Judge Hannah Kinch said: “The temperature will need to be monitored and if it goes above 26C the defendants will have to be taken down again. I don’t see how we can have a hearing while we are stopping and starting. I also think it would be deeply unfair to have defendants who are facing serious sentences kept in difficult conditions in the dock.” At midday the judge confirmed the hearing could not go ahead because the dock had not cooled down. It was adjourned until October.
Wildfires and Water Safety
Firefighters from Derbyshire and Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service are continuing to tackle a wildfire on Tintwistle Moor in Glossop which is affecting an area of about 200 hectares. Leicestershire Police said specialist police dive teams searching for a teenage boy after reports he entered Meynell Lake in Fosse Way, Syston, on Thursday, have recovered his body from the water. A 50-year-old man from Cilfrew, Neath Port Talbot, Wales, died after entering the water at Aberavon beach on Wednesday.
Energy and Climate Context
Meanwhile, the National Energy System Operator (Neso) said electricity supplies may be squeezed on Friday. Neso, which is tasked with making sure the supply of electricity matches demand for it, issued a so-called electricity margin notice for between 7pm and 10pm. It is asking for 700 megawatts of power generation as a buffer to cover an expected shortfall in electricity margins. It is the second time this week Neso has issued a call for more power, having done the same on Wednesday. However, the grid operator cancelled the warning shortly after 2pm on Wednesday, indicating it was confident in power supply levels for the evening.
Annie Shuttleworth, a Met Office meteorologist, said eastern England is expected to see the highest temperatures on Friday but things will “finally cool down this weekend.” Wales saw its hottest June day on record on Thursday, with 35.9C recorded in Cardiff, while Northern Ireland saw the previous record high for June matched after a temperature of 30.8C was reached in Castlederg. The current heatwave is driven by a “heat-dome” – an area of high pressure that stalls over a region and traps heat – settling over western Europe and bringing extreme conditions across the continent. Human-driven climate change, mostly caused by burning fossil fuels, is making such extreme heatwaves more frequent and intense.
