Summer Pressures: Why the NHS Needs a Plan for Heat the Same Way It Plans for Winter

The season opened in May with temperatures reaching 35.1°C at Kew Gardens, breaking a record that had stood since 1922. June followed with temperatures exceeding 37°C alongside high humidity. By mid-August, the mercury had climbed to 38.1°C, the fifth hottest temperature ever recorded in the UK.

Each heatwave brought fresh pressure on services. June became the busiest month on record for emergency departments, with average daily A&E attendances exceeding 80,000 for the first time in NHS history. The UKHSA and Met Office issued Amber Heat-Health Alerts across all nine English regions in August. NHS officials have described the conditions this summer as comparable to, and in some cases exceeding, typical winter pressures.

The Met Office has indicated that temperatures could trend above average into early September, particularly across southern parts of the UK. A sixth heatwave is one possible outcome, though not a certainty. What is certain is that the sector cannot afford to wait and see.

The people most at risk from extreme heat are largely the same people most at risk from extreme cold. Older adults, particularly those over 75. People living alone or in care homes. Those managing long-term conditions including diabetes, kidney disease, Parkinson's and certain mental health conditions. Disabled people. The very young.

Health Secretary Yvette Cooper made this point directly when she directed the NHS to begin drawing up summer plans: "All the same people who are most at risk when it is very cold are at risk in the extreme heat: older people, the youngest children, and people with existing conditions."

For social care, structural pressures compound the risk. Hospitals are struggling to discharge patients because there is not enough social care provision to support people safely at home. Care homes are managing indoor temperatures that can exceed clinical thresholds. Domiciliary care workers are visiting vulnerable people in overheated homes with limited cooling. Medicines storage, workforce capacity and safe staffing levels are all affected when temperatures rise.

The Royal College of Nursing has described swathes of the NHS and social care estate as "utterly unprepared for extreme temperatures", calling for an urgent programme to heat-proof facilities. Nursing staff have reported working in environments exceeding 36°C, with elderly patients receiving care in conditions that risk making them sicker.

Winter pressures planning works because it is structured, coordinated and starts well in advance. Summer readiness needs the same approach.

• Identifying risk before a heatwave arrives. Technology that gives care teams real-time visibility of their caseloads, combined with data that helps them identify who is most at risk, allows for proactive outreach. Knowing which individuals are isolated, which are managing multiple conditions and which have no cooling at home is the starting point for any effective summer plan. Access Intelligent Care Platform (AICP) gives teams the population-level visibility to do exactly that, surfacing risk across a caseload so that outreach is targeted rather than reactive.
• Supporting the workforce through sustained heat. Heat stress affects staff as much as patients. Workforce management tools that support flexible rostering, monitor absence patterns and ensure adequate cover during periods of high demand are essential. When staff are struggling, care quality suffers. Reducing the administrative burden on clinical teams matters too. Smart Notes, built natively into Rio, uses ambient voice AI to generate structured clinical notes automatically, freeing clinicians from evening admin and giving them more capacity when demand is at its highest.
• Remote monitoring and telecare for people living independently. For people at home, digital telecare and remote monitoring provide a critical safety net during a heatwave. Assistive technology that detects changes in routine, raises alerts and connects individuals to support reduces both risk and demand on stretched services. It also takes pressure off domiciliary care teams who cannot physically visit everyone at the same time.
• Joined-up data across health and social care. Fragmented systems produce fragmented responses. Integrated platforms that connect social care, primary care and community health teams allow for coordinated action. A person flagged as high risk in one part of the system should not be invisible to another. Rio EPR connects clinical teams across mental health and community settings, while Rio Observations supports inpatient teams in monitoring and acting on patient data in real time - both critical when conditions deteriorate quickly.

Climate-related health risks are becoming a permanent feature of healthcare planning. The UKHSA's Adverse Weather and Health Plan covers a four-month window from June to September every year. Planning, investment and operational changes required to manage that window need to be built into how the NHS and social care sector operates year-round.

Access has worked alongside NHS trusts, local authorities and care providers for more than 30 years. The organisations that manage sustained pressure best are those with the data, the systems and the joined-up working practices to respond quickly when conditions change.

If you want to talk through how your organisation is approaching summer resilience, get in touch with our team.