Background
Climate change is making heatwaves in the UK more likely and more severe. Recent heatwaves, including those in England in 2026, demonstrated the impact extreme heat can have on hospitals. Without effective management, extreme heat can put patients and staff at risk, increase demand for services, disrupt infrastructure and digital systems, and lead to operations being cancelled.
In 2025, NHS England and the UK Health Security Agency concluded that immediate and coordinated action was needed to ensure healthcare services could withstand increasing climate pressures and continue to deliver safe, effective, and accessible care. The Climate Change Committee also concluded that insufficient progress was being made in preparing health and healthcare for climate change.
Scope
This report will look at the actions that the Department of Health & Social Care, NHS England and the NHS is taking to ensure NHS hospitals are resilient to extreme heat. We will set out:
- how extreme heat events impact NHS hospitals
- what arrangements NHS hospitals have in place to respond to extreme heat events
- what government is doing to strengthen NHS hospitals’ resilience to future extreme heat scenarios, which will likely be more frequent and more severe
NAO team
Director: Catherine Barber
Audit Manager: Helen Roberts