The heat has piled unprecedented pressure onto the NHS in the North East and Yorkshire, with almost 400,000 people passing through A&E departments in July alone.
The NHS itself is describing the strain as a ‘summer surge’, pointing to the combination of heatwave conditions and an amber heat health alert issued earlier in the week of 14 August.
Nationally, England has just come through its three busiest months for A&E ever recorded, spanning May, June and July.
Remarkably, the system didn’t just hold up under the strain, it was reported, it actually improved. A higher proportion of patients were treated and sent on their way inside four hours than the month before, with regional performance climbing to 76.4%.
Busy summer months
On the roads, ambulance crews responded to 121,065 calls across the region in July, a figure that stands as the busiest outside winter the area has ever recorded, while England as a whole logged its fourth-busiest month for ambulance call-outs ever and its second-busiest outside winter.
Even response times for the most serious category 2 emergencies — strokes, heart attacks and the like — came in faster than both the month before and the same point a year earlier.
None of this is entirely unusual for summer, when warmer weather typically nudges accident numbers upward as people spend more time outside. But this year has gone further, with the heat itself fuelling extra hospital admissions — people hurt or unwell while out and about, breathing problems flaring in the dry air, and existing conditions worsening under the strain of the temperatures.
Staff have also had extra support laid on to help them cope with working shifts in the sweltering conditions.
Leaf Mobbs, Regional Chief Operating Officer, said: “The NHS has been preparing for periods of hot weather and teams across the country are working hard to ensure patients continue to receive safe, high-quality care despite increased demand. While services remain busy, people should continue to come forward for care when they need it and use NHS 111 for urgent health advice.”
Pressure on services
Professor Frankie Swords, NHS National Medical Director, said: “Like many members of the public, NHS staff are enjoying the lovely weather outside of work, but the heat is making day-to-day working more challenging while also driving up pressure on services. But staff are as ever demonstrating outstanding professionalism, flexibility and hard work in the face of this summer surge – seeing more patients, more quickly, while bringing down the waiting list despite record numbers of people being referred for treatment.
“Please take sensible precautions to stay safe: keep hydrated, avoid the sun during the hottest part of the day especially if you are clinically vulnerable, and check in on older or vulnerable friends, relatives and neighbours. While the NHS is busy, it is here for anyone who needs it, so please continue to call 999 in a life-threatening emergency and otherwise use NHS 111.”
The national picture tells a similar story: more than three-quarters of A&E patients were treated inside the four-hour window over the period, diagnostic tests and checks reached a record 2.65 million in a single month, and the waiting list fell in June for the first time since 2011.
Health and Social Care Secretary Yvette Cooper said: “I want to thank NHS staff for their extraordinary efforts over this hugely challenging summer.”
She went on to say: “But today’s figures also show how much of an additional burden is placed on the NHS during periods of extreme heat, and I have made clear that we must start planning for summer pressures in the NHS in the same way we do for winter.”
She said work was already under way with health service leaders on exactly those plans, so hospitals have enough staff, beds and emergency capacity ready whatever the weather throws at them next.
