Sunita Somvanshi
Nurses in England and Wales described patients becoming unwell in wards that regularly exceeded 30°C; the RCN said some testimony also referred to deaths, but the survey did not establish heat as the sole cause. One nurse reported that a children’s ward in Yorkshire reached 44°C. A survey published by the Royal College of Nursing on 18 September — covering 2,471 nursing staff in England and Wales — documented severe heat-related risks in hospitals and care settings. UK law does not set a maximum workplace temperature, although employers must assess and manage heat hazards.
The survey ran between 13 and 28 August 2026, making it contemporaneous testimony gathered while the heat was still present. Staff described dehydration, respiratory problems and concerns about caring for vulnerable patients and storing medicines in extreme heat. The RCN surveyed nursing staff in England and Wales.
The UK Met Office separately confirmed that summer 2026 was provisionally the hottest on record for the UK, averaging 16.5°C. The figure is a national outdoor average and does not measure indoor hospital temperatures.
Families with loved ones in NHS facilities during hot weather should raise concerns about hydration and room temperature with ward staff. They should not bring or use fans or request medication changes without following the hospital’s clinical and infection-control guidance.
RCN chief executive Professor Nicola Ranger called for investment in cooling facilities. Three in four nursing staff said they had little or no confidence that the government was doing enough to reduce climate-change impacts on health and care services. The Department of Health had been asked for comment.
Why Extreme Heat Is Difficult to Regulate in Hospitals
HSE guidance says indoor workplaces should generally provide a reasonable temperature of at least 16°C, or 13°C where work involves serious physical effort. There is no statutory maximum workplace temperature. No general rule identified in published sources requires NHS trusts to evacuate wards or install mechanical cooling at a particular temperature. Trusts remain responsible for managing risks to patients and staff.
Nurses reported effects on chemotherapy storage, wound care, respiratory distress in adults and newborns, and monitoring of patients on mental-health wards. The testimony suggests that extreme heat created patient-safety risks across several clinical settings.
The RCN survey was conducted while the heat was ongoing. That makes the testimony qualitatively different from a retrospective account: staff reported in real time that they were managing dehydration and other heat-related risks during the survey period.
No coroner finding or formal mortality study linked specific deaths to heat as a single cause. The survey documents repeated reports of heat-related clinical risk, but it is not a mortality study and does not establish the cause of individual deaths.
