NHS England has reported that there has been a 198% rise in visits to its head exhaustion advice on its website.
The web page gives advice on how to avoid and deal with heat exhaustion and heatstroke.
In real terms, this is 31,524 visits in 48 hours.
This 48 hours is the time since the heat-health alert was upgrade to an amber status across most of England at midday on Wednesday 18th June, compared to 10,578 visits the Monday and Tuesday before.
Quoting the page, “heat exhaustion does not usually need emergency medical help if you can cool down within 30 minutes but if it turns into heatstroke, it needs to be treated as an emergency”.
But heat is not the only seasonal issue that is seeing heightened traffic. Very high pollen levels across the country have also led to web visits to the NHS’s advice on hay fever rising by 86% in the past seven days (13-19 June) to 53,656, compared to 28,914 in the previous week (6-12 June).
The heat-health alert ended on Monday 23rd June
Dr Claire Fuller, NHS Co-National Medical Director (Primary Care), said: “We’ve seen a surge in visits to both our heat exhaustion and hay fever advice over the past week, with the high pollen levels also having an impact on people’s health.
“The heat exhaustion and heatstroke web page includes useful tips on how to stay cool, the symptoms of heat exhaustion, what to do if someone is affected and when to seek medical advice.”
The heat-health alert ended on Monday 23rd June.
Heat problems in UK hospitals
In 2022, the UK reached 40 degrees for the first time ever. With climate change, this is an event that is likely not to be isolated.
Survey data from the University of Birmingham about the healthcare sector's response to the heatwave saw 271 responses from 140 UK hospitals.
41% of operating theatres having no means to control ambient temperature
The results of this survey showed
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