The UK is currently experiencing some of the highest temperatures ever recorded in May, with certain areas reaching above 35C on Tuesday.
Advocates have raised concerns about the lack of adequate cooling systems in Britain's public buildings, urging improvements in hospitals, care homes, and other facilities that serve vulnerable populations.
During the 2022 heatwave, the UK recorded over 3,000 heat-related deaths. Groups considered especially at risk during extreme heat include older adults, newborns, and individuals with pre-existing health conditions.
Amid this heatwave, several individuals shared their experiences and strategies for coping with the intense weather conditions. Below are their accounts.
‘My hospital room has become unbearable’
Karl, a 42-year-old Methodist minister from south London, has been hospitalized for nearly a week due to myocarditis, an inflammation of the heart muscle caused by a virus. He commends NHS staff and volunteers for their care but highlights the difficulties posed by the heat in the hospital ward.
Karl says that at one point, the thermometer on the wall of his hospital room reached 29C. NHS guidelines recommend maintaining temperatures between 19C and 23C in wards caring for vulnerable patients, but many facilities struggle with overheating.
“Yesterday, I was splashing water on my arms and legs and face to try and cool down, because the room was just unbearable,” Karl says. “At one point I couldn’t stay in the room because I was starting to feel sickly.”
He notes that staff have taken measures to assist patients, including providing fans, ice for water jugs, and frequent reminders to stay hydrated. Volunteers have also distributed ice lollies.
“I really can’t praise the staff enough,” he says. “They’ve been superb.”
Karl emphasizes the urgent need for infrastructure modernization in response to climate change.
“The government needs to speed up investment in infrastructure,” he states. “It’s not enough just to make nice noises. You need to change things.”
‘The rapid change catches people out in the UK’
Robert Vernon, 74, residing in a retirement complex in Stratford-upon-Avon, believes that Britons must adapt to hotter weather conditions.
Having been born in the UK but raised in Australia from age five, Vernon has spent much of his life in warmer climates before returning to Britain approximately 15 years ago. He identifies the sudden temperature fluctuations in the UK as a major challenge.
Living among over 100 retired residents, Vernon expresses concern that many do not know how to safely manage extreme heat.
“The rapid variance is what catches people out physically … I’ve even seen some people here dress exactly the same way as they would have last week when it was 14C,” he says.
He advises his neighbours to spend the hottest parts of the day in the local shopping centre to benefit from air conditioning.
“I tell them, you can sit down, have a nice cup of coffee, kill a couple hours and when you come out, it’s cooler.”
‘We sleep outside in the intense heat’
Tahir, 58, who works in external relations and lives in High Wycombe with his partner and two teenage children, draws on his experiences abroad to manage the heat in the UK.
“When I was a teenager visiting my relatives in Pakistan, we would sleep outside on the flat roof when it got too hot,” he recalls.
This memory influenced his response during the current heatwave when his home became “unbearable.”
“We all slept outside in the garden on blow-up beds and it was lovely,” he says, adding that whenever temperatures exceed 30C, his family moves to the garden.
“I know not everyone has an outside space, but for those who have, it can be a way to get a good night’s sleep,” Tahir adds. “I have since suggested it to friends, but they think I’m bonkers.”
‘I was very climate aware’
Mary Ann Hooper, 82, from Wirksworth in Derbyshire, compares the heat to summers from her childhood in the United States.
She credits her ability to stay cool at home to renovations made when she purchased her bungalow 10 years ago.
“I had it completely renovated. I was very climate aware, I had it insulated on the outside and all sorts of things done,” she explains.
Mary Ann also installed a “brise soleil,” an external timber structure designed to shade south-facing windows during summer while allowing sunlight to warm the house in winter.
“It’s very common on the continent,” she notes. “But even with all the discussion about cooling homes in this country, it doesn’t seem to have entered into anything I’ve seen.”
‘It brings home the legacy we are creating’
Shirley, a retiree living in Somerset, expresses emotional concern for her grandchildren amid the extreme heat.
“I am being affected emotionally by the current heatwave,” she says. “When your granddaughter, who is 21 months old, doesn’t want to eat, can’t go out in the heat to the park for a swing, it brings home the legacy we are creating.
“When an older grandchild, who is 13, arrives home tired after sitting on a sweltering school coach in traffic with a heavy school bag that also holds a synthetic PE kit, you question how many times they filled their water bottle today.”
Shirley, who has three grandchildren, advocates for improved education about climate change and sustainable growth.
“There needs to be better education for the whole population on exactly what climate we as a species have created,” she says, emphasizing that growth should support planetary and species health.
“If you have grandchildren, you do consider the future quite deeply – by putting money away for them, keeping things for them. Now I’m thinking, ‘Oh my God, what good would any of that do?’”
