Adapting hospitals for a changing climate

Coping with extremes of temperature in a changing climate poses a particular problem for hospitals, which treat vulnerable patients and are often housed in older buildings. Researchers measured excessively hot summer conditions in UK hospitals for 12 years in order to develop a set of proposals to boost resilience in hot summers across the 248 NHS England Acute Hospitals. The UK Department of Health also commissioned Alan Short to redraft the primary NHS guidance on energy efficiency. Short, along with collaborators at Loughborough University, the Open University and the Cambridge Engineering Design Centre, made recommendations to increase resilience to the changing climate, reduce carbon emissions and improve comfort.

Added 16 November 2022