Dr Matt Lee has written an opinion piece in the BMJ titled The NHS must adapt as extreme heat becomes inevitable.

In it, he warns that the NHS must be better prepared for increasingly frequent and intense heatwaves.

Urgent action

He said that without urgent action, preventable harm to patients and healthcare workers will continue.

The column draws on a DAUK survey of 1,111 NHS staff during the June heatwave.

More than two-thirds said heat had affected patient care and safety, while 83.3% described their workplace as very or dangerously hot. Almost 90% supported the introduction of a legal maximum workplace temperature for healthcare facilities.

Heatwave survey

Dr Lee explores the survey in his BMJ Leader blog titled I can no longer keep patients safe – Heatwaves and Health Workers: time for political action.

In it he highlights the survey findings and DAUK’s calls for action in its correspondence to the political leaders responsible for health in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

He wrote: “A failure to act will cost even more lives. 

Bold action

“We (at Doctors Association UK), and others in the healthcare community, are ready to support politicians to take bold action to keep us all safe.”

Read Dr Lee’s opinion column in the BMJ: The NHS must adapt as extreme heat becomes inevitable

Read the BMJ Leader blog: “I can no longer keep patients safe” – Heatwaves and Health Workers: time for political action

We are a non-profit campaigning and lobbying organisation led by frontline doctors, for frontline doctors. We are volunteers and our collective aim is to give frontline workers a voice to be heard.

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The letters follow DAUK’s survey of the lived experiences of healthcare professionals across the UK during the heatwave in the week commencing 22 June 2026.

As health is devolved, DAUK has shared the findings with each of the nations’ governments.

Dr Matt Lee, DAUK sustainability lead, said: “We are asking the governments across the UK to listen to the frontline experiences shared through our survey and take action now, so that patients and healthcare workers are not subjected to these conditions again.”

Extreme heat

“Patients should never be left in dangerously hot clinical environments and staff should not be expected to make complex decisions or deliver emergency care in conditions that leave them struggling to function.

“Extreme heat is becoming a recurring threat to health, and our NHS infrastructure needs to be adapted accordingly.

“We cannot wait for the next heatwave before taking action.”

In the letter to the devolved governments, DAUK has called for urgent measures:

Urgent measures

• A legal maximum safe working temperature for hospitals and GP surgeries, in line with the UKHSA’s recommendations for safe working temperatures for inpatient settings.
• Hannah Spencer MP has a second reading of her Maximum Workplace Temperature Bill on the 16th October, and we strongly encourage cross Governmental and Cross-Party support for this bill.
• Urgent investment in passive and active cooling mechanisms, such as air conditioning, to provide the ability to all healthcare settings to reduce air temperatures to safer working temperatures.
• Urgent investment in insulation and energy efficiency, to provide more consistent temperatures year-round.
• Encourage employers to treat high air temperatures as significant health risks to staff and provide appropriate rest, cooling and hydration facilities.

Public health threat

DAUK has also urged the governments to take an accelerated programme of high impact climate crisis education and action, and to treat climate change as the number one threat to public health

• Deliver an urgent, public health campaign on the relationship between climate change and health.
• Accelerate decarbonisation targets and include a target of ensuring every health facility has solar energy installations, such as solar car parks, to mitigate climate change and offset increased energy requirements and costs due to air conditioning.
• Accelerate the restoration of nature to rapidly expand greenspaces around healthcare facilities to mitigate against heatwaves and other extreme weather events.

Dr Lee urged the devolved governments to ensure that lessons from this summer’s heatwaves are acted upon rather than forgotten as temperatures fall.

Health crisis

He said: “The climate crisis is a health crisis, and healthcare systems need to be prepared for the health impacts we are already seeing.

“We cannot accept a situation where the next heatwave produces another set of heartbreaking accounts from staff doing everything they can to care for patients in environments that are unsafe.

“Our survey provides a clear warning and we need UK governments to turn that warning into action.”

“DAUK is ready to work with the devolved governments and healthcare organisations to develop solutions that protect patients and staff during future periods of extreme heat.”

Heatwave survey

A total of 1,111 NHS staff responded to the survey. The findings painted a stark picture of the conditions faced by patients and staff during the heatwaves.

Among the key findings:

• 94.1 per cent reported no, or only partially working, air conditioning in their main clinical area, with fewer than five per cent reporting air conditioning throughout their area.
• 83.3 per cent described their workplace as very hot or dangerously hot, with 42 per cent describing it as dangerously hot.
• 68.3 per cent said the heat had affected patient care and safety.
• 86.9 per cent said they or their colleagues had felt unwell because of the heat.
• 89.8 per cent said they would support a legal maximum workplace temperature for healthcare facilities.

Read the survey findings in full.

We are a non-profit campaigning and lobbying organisation led by frontline doctors, for frontline doctors. We are volunteers and our collective aim is to give frontline workers a voice to be heard.

Please support our work by contributing to our crowd funder.

However, DAUK’s sustainability lead Dr Matt Lee warned the Government must act urgently to prevent avoidable harm during future heatwaves.

DHSC was responding to DAUK’s survey of more than 1,100 doctors and healthcare workers during June’s record-breaking heatwave.

The survey found reports of dangerously high temperatures, staff being ill at work, and disruption to patient care.

Heatwave survey

More than four out of five respondents (83.3%) described their workplace as very hot or dangerously hot, while 86.9% said they or colleagues had felt unwell because of the heat.

Almost 70% said the heat had affected patient safety, and 89.8% supported the introduction of a legal maximum safe working temperature for healthcare facilities.

DAUK wrote to the Health Secretary to highlight the results.

It also called for a legal maximum safe working temperature for hospitals and GP surgeries as well as investment in cooling systems and energy efficiency, among other asks.

DHSC response

DHSC has now sent its response, which is available to read here.

Dr Lee said: “We are grateful to DHSC for their response and for recognising the impacts of heatwaves on NHS staff and patients.

“It is pleasing to hear the Health and Safety Executive is considering a consultation later this year which would include reviewing regulations on workplace temperatures.

“Should this be a public consultation, we intend to respond to support the implementation of maximum working temperatures in healthcare settings.

“We also urge cross-parliamentary support for Hannah Spencer MP’s Bill on maximum workplace temperatures at it’s second reading on 16 October.

Unbearable working conditions

“However, this response from DHSC lacks the urgency required to prevent healthcare professionals and patients from facing the unbearable, horrific and inhumane working conditions that our survey respondents described.

“We have no reason to believe next summer will be any cooler, and unless urgent action is taken over the coming months, staff and patients will come to harm that could, and should have been prevented.

“DAUK remains committed to advocating for an NHS that is safe for its staff and patients in all weathers.

“We continue to call for a meeting with the UK Government to discuss the heatwave experiences shared with us, and strongly encourage an accelerated program of decarbonisation and climate adaptation to work towards a safe and liveable future for us all.”

DAUK committee members are all volunteers and campaign on issues facing frontline doctors in their own time. Please support our work by joining DAUK or donating to our GoFundMe.

DAUK’s sustainability lead Dr Matt Lee told national radio listeners that patients and staff in hospitals and GP surgeries had been experiencing ‘unbearable’ and ‘inhumane’ conditions.

Speaking to LBC, Dr Lee drew on findings from DAUK’s survey of healthcare professionals and their experiences during the June heatwave to describe the conditions facing staff and patients.

Extreme weather events

He said: “This is not the new normal. This is the latest baseline in extreme weather events, and things are only going to get worse unless we take decisive climate action.”

Dr Lee said the survey had found patients who had been brought in due to severe heat stroke who could not be treated properly because there is nowhere cool to lay them down.

It also heard of nurses collapsing, septic patients left in corridors with temperatures of 33C, and five separate reports of the heating still being on.

“That is absolutely inhumane,” he said.

Click here to hear part of Dr Lee’s interview on the DAUK Instagram.

Heatwave survey

The DAUK heatwave survey and its findings have also been featured by Bloomberg, Pharmacy Business, the BMJ, Doctors.Net, and on the Channel 5 debate programme Storm & Alexis.

It has also received international coverage including the South China Morning Post.

And Dr Lee spoke to the Lead about his own experience of having to prepare a ‘just-in-case evacuation bag’ while watching wildfire smoke from his home.

“The realities of climate change and what it means for our friends and family are feeling closer than ever,” he said.

Click here for previous media coverage of our heatwave survey and calls for a legal maximum workplace temperature.

Thank you

Dr Lee thanked NHS staff for taking part in the survey.

He said: “To the NHS staff who contributed to our survey, this media coverage of the conditions you have endured has only been possible because of people like you, our members and social media followers, who have taken the time to share their experiences with us.

“We hope you recognise the impact that you have had. It is your voices that have made the difference.

“We will continue to advocate for you on this genuinely life-threatening issue until we have the safe healthcare facilities that our patients, and all those who look after them, deserve.”

DAUK committee members are all volunteers and campaign on issues facing frontline doctors in their own time. Please support our work by joining DAUK or donating to our GoFundMe.

Photo credit: Neil Thomas on Unsplash

DAUK sustainability lead Dr Matt Lee said it would be an important step towards protecting patients and NHS healthcare staff from the risks posed by extreme heat.

It follows a DAUK survey during June’s record-breaking heatwave which found reports of dangerously high temperatures, staff being ill at work, and disruption to patient care.

Maximum working temperatures

DAUK shared the findings with health Secretary with a call for urgent action to introduce a legal maximum working temperature across healthcare settings.

The survey, completed by 1,111 healthcare professionals, found that 89% of respondents support the introduction of a legal maximum workplace temperature. Respondents described dangerously hot clinical environments, with reported indoor temperatures reaching as high as 45°C, heating systems remaining on during periods of extreme heat, patients suffering heat-related illness, and staff becoming unwell while delivering care.

Now DAUK has given its support to moves by Ms Spencer to introduce legislation to establish a legal maximum workplace temperature and has shared the findings of our survey with the Green Party MP for Gorton and Denton.

Patient and staff safety

Dr Lee said: “We welcome further discussion on this vital topic.

“We would certainly be happy to support the implementation of the bill from a health and social care perspective to keep patients and staff safe.”

We are a non-profit campaigning and lobbying organisation led by frontline doctors, for frontline doctors. We are volunteers and our collective aim is to give frontline workers a voice to be heard.

Please support our work by contributing to our crowd funder.

Dr Matt Lee said that climate change is raising the health risks associated with extreme heat.

And he renewed Doctors’ Association UK’s call for urgent investment in hospitals, GP surgeries, and healthcare settings to create safe spaces for staff and patients.

Dr Lee said: “As wildfires rage across the UK, the excess death figures from these first heatwaves have now been released. This number will continue to rise with the most recent heatwave.

Climate crisis is a health crisis

“It is clear more than ever that the climate crisis is a health crisis and governments need to act now and act with urgency.

“Hospitals and GP surgeries are not equipped to handle heat. They should be safe spaces for patients and staff, but currently pose imminent patient and staff safety risks.

“We urge politicians of all parties to come together on making hospitals and GP surgeries safe, and we welcome discussions with any politicians who are prepared to take action for patients and healthcare workers.”

“This is the latest baseline in extreme weather events. We need immediate climate adaptations in healthcare and an accelerated program of decarbonisation and nature restoration to secure a liveable future.”

Heatwave survey

Our survey of healthcare workers during June’s record-breaking heatwave highlighted the extreme temperatures NHS staff were working in. The survey found reports of dangerously high temperatures, staff being ill at work, and disruption to patient care.

DAUK wrote to health secretary James Murray with the findings and called for urgent action, including a maximum safe working temperature for hospitals and GP surgeries.

The survey continues to make headlines.

Dr Lee was invited onto Channel 5’s topical debate programme Storm & Alexis to discuss the findings and the letter.

BBC Online has also reported on the survey and our calls in its report on the current heatwave creating new pressures for NHS hospitals. The letter to the health secretary was also reported by Management in Practice.

We are a non-profit campaigning and lobbying organisation led by frontline doctors, for frontline doctors. We are volunteers and our collective aim is to give frontline workers a voice to be heard.

Please support our work by contributing to our crowd funder.

It follows a DAUK survey during June’s record-breaking heatwave which found reports of dangerously high temperatures, staff being ill at work, and disruption to patient care.

Now DAUK has written to health secretary James Murray to share the findings and call for urgent action, including a maximum safe working temperature for hospitals and GP surgeries.

It comes as temperatures are forecast to climb above 30C this next week, raising concerns staff and patients could again face unsafe conditions

Heatwave

Dr Matt Lee, DAUK’s sustainability lead, said: “As the country prepares for yet another heatwave, healthcare professionals across the country will again face brutal working conditions and patients will be at risk.

“This is the latest baseline of extreme weather events which will only continue to worsen as greenhouse gas emissions rise.

“We urge the government to introduce a maximum working temperature and invest in hospital infrastructure to make our healthcare facilities safe for staff and patients.”

The survey found:

• 94.1% of respondents reported having no air conditioning, or only partial air conditioning.
• 83.3% of respondents described their workplace as very hot or dangerously hot.
• 68.3% of respondents said the heat had affected patient safety.
• 86.9% said they or colleagues had felt unwell because of the heat.
• 89.8% supported introducing a legal maximum safe working temperature for healthcare facilities.

Among 367 reported indoor temperatures, the median was 33C, with temperatures reaching as high as 45C.

Heat exhaustion

More than 1,100 doctors and healthcare workers responded to DAUK’s rapid survey. Respondents described patients developing dehydration and heat exhaustion, operations being disrupted, staff collapsing at work, and clinical decision-making becoming more difficult in the heat.

One respondent said: “A nurse collapsed on the ward, everyone is working with wet pads or gloves filled with water on their necks… all the lights on some wards have been turned off to keep it cool.”

Another wrote: “Burning hot while having to make vital decisions about the care of very vulnerable and clinically unstable patients. Doing CPR in a poorly ventilated room was almost impossible.”

A clinician working in emergency care said: “I can no longer care for patients safely. Septic patients are left in corridors with ambient temperatures of 33 degrees.”

Heat stroke

Another respondent said: “We have patients brought in due to severe heat stroke who are not able to be treated appropriately because there is nowhere cool to put them.”

One wrote: “Old hospital heating still on full blast as unable to turn old radiators down.”

In its letter to the Health Secretary, DAUK said the NHS remains poorly adapted to the increasing frequency and severity of extreme heat driven by climate change.

DAUK is calling for:

• A legal maximum safe working temperature for hospitals and GP surgeries, in line with the UKHSA’s recommendations for safe working temperatures for inpatient settings.
• Urgent investment in cooling mechanisms, such as air conditioning, to provide the ability to all healthcare settings to reduce air temperatures to safer working temperatures.
• Urgent investment in insulation and energy efficiency, to provide more consistent temperatures year-round.
• Encourage employers to treat high air temperatures as significant health risks to staff and provide appropriate rest, cooling and hydration facilities.
• Accelerate the restoration of nature to rapidly expand greenspaces around healthcare facilities to mitigate against heatwaves and other extreme weather events.

Patient safety

Dr Lee added that heatwaves should now be treated as a patient safety issue.

He said: “The experiences shared by healthcare workers make clear that extreme heat is already affecting patient care, staff wellbeing and the safe running of NHS services.

“Without urgent action, these harms will become more frequent as temperatures continue to rise.”

Read the letter to health secretary James Murray.

Download the report of the survey’s findings.

Read themed responses to the survey.

Photo: Jason Reid on Pexels.

We are a non-profit campaigning and lobbying organisation led by frontline doctors, for frontline doctors. We are volunteers and our collective aim is to give frontline workers a voice to be heard.

Please support our work by contributing to our crowd funder.

Launched during June’s record-breaking heatwave, the rapid snapshot survey asked healthcare workers about their working conditions including the availability of air conditioning and ventilation, and the impact of excessive heat on staff wellbeing and patient care.

It also sought views on whether there should be a legal maximum working temperature in healthcare settings.

The initial findings, which are on our website, have been reported in several publications.

Maximum workplace temperature

They include the Daily Telegraph, which highlighted DAUK’s calls for a legal maximum workplace temperature.

The Morning Star focused on responses of NHS staff, who spoke about colleagues collapsing as workplaces reached 43C.

Meanwhile, Pulse, GP Online, and Management in Practice drew attention to the challenges faced by GP practices.

The survey has now been completed by more than 1,000 doctors and NHS staff.

Calls to improve conditions

The final results are being collated and will be sent to the health secretary with our calls for improving conditions for healthcare staff in the future. They will also be shared with media outlets.

We’re calling for:

• Legal maximum safe working temperatures for hospitals and GP surgeries
• Urgent investment in air conditioning and cooling mechanisms in hospitals
• Urgent investment in insulation and energy efficiency upgrades in hospital infrastructure so that temperatures remain constant all year round
• Standardised and transparent process for healthcare professionals to report high working temperatures
• Local plans for enhancing safe resting and cooling periods during hot temperature working, including cold water drinking facilities
• Urgent investment in urban and rural green space enhancement due to the impacts on local cooling and decarbonisation
• An accelerated focus on decarbonisation, with the climate crisis being treated as the number one threat to the health of the UK public, including an urgent public health education campaign on the impacts of climate change on health

Dr Matt Lee, DAUK sustainability lead, said: “Thank you to everyone who took the time completed the survey and share their experiences.

“Together we have highlighted the reality of working in the NHS during heatwaves with a national audience.

“The next step is for us share the results and the experiences of NHS staff with the health secretary and the Department of Health, and to press for safer conditions for workers and patients.”

We are a non-profit campaigning and lobbying organisation led by frontline doctors, for frontline doctors. We are volunteers and our collective aim is to give frontline workers a voice to be heard.

Please support our work by contributing to our crowd funder.

DAUK’s rapid survey of NHS workers found that more than four in five respondents described their workplace as uncomfortably warm, very hot or dangerously hot. More than two-thirds said the heat had affected patient care or safety.

Doctors, nurses and other NHS staff have described patients becoming dehydrated, staff feeling faint, temperatures in clinical rooms becoming unsafe, delays to care, theatre disruption, and difficulty concentrating in the extreme heat.

Survey results

DAUK has so far received 558 responses, and initial analysis found:

• 94 per cent of respondents reported no or only partial working air conditioning in their main clinical area
• 95 per cent of respondents said their workplace was uncomfortably warm, very hot or dangerously hot
• More than two-thirds (68 per cent) of respondents said heat had affected patient care or safety
• 86 per cent of respondents said they or colleagues had felt unwell because of the heat
• Almost nine out of 10 (89 per cent) of respondents said they would support a legal maximum workplace temperature

Where respondents supplied a temperature reading, the median reported temperature was 32C. Nearly one in four temperature reports were 35C or above, with the highest reported temperature 43C.

DAUK described the early findings of the survey as ‘shocking but not surprising’, saying that overheating in NHS workplaces must be treated as a patient safety issue, not just a comfort issue.

Worrying pattern

Dr Matt Lee, DAUK sustainability lead, said: “Our survey confirms a worrying pattern across the NHS.

“Doctors and other NHS staff are describing wards, clinics and emergency departments that are simply too hot to work in safely.

“Staff are feeling faint, patients are dehydrated and people are being expected to deliver complex clinical care in conditions that would not be tolerated in almost all other workplaces.

“It’s shocking that colleagues and patients are having to endure these conditions, but sadly not surprising.”

Patient safety

Anonymised survey responses included:

• “Fans are not enough. Windows that open a sliver are not good enough. I cannot function in this heat and patient safety is affected.”
• “The patients are also suffering. I had two patients with new acute kidney injuries today that were at least in part due to dehydration from the heat.”
• “Sweat was dripping off me onto a patient. Truly embarrassing. A colleague collapsed and needed time out.”
• “Rewriting a drug chart took 40 minutes whereas it would normally take 10 as we couldn’t focus.”

DAUK is calling for:

• Legal maximum safe working temperatures for hospitals and GP surgeries
• Urgent investment in air conditioning and cooling mechanisms in hospitals
• Urgent investment in insulation and energy efficiency upgrades in hospital infrastructure so that temperatures remain constant all year round
• Standardised and transparent process for healthcare professionals to report high working temperatures
• Local plans for enhancing safe resting and cooling periods during hot temperature working, including cold water drinking facilities
• Urgent investment in urban and rural green space enhancement due to the impacts on local cooling and decarbonisation
• An accelerated focus on decarbonisation, with the climate crisis being treated as the number one threat to the health of the UK public, including an urgent public health education campaign on the impacts of climate change on health

Dr Lee said: “NHS infrastructure is wholly ill-equipped to deal with the heatwaves that we are regularly experiencing, and patients and staff are suffering.

Routine safety risk

“The NHS has to prepare for heat as a routine safety risk, not an occasional inconvenience.

“This week the Met Office modelled future heatwaves within our lifetimes peaking at 45C due to climate change.

“Our current heatwaves are already fatal, these would be catastrophic and action must be taken now to mitigate this.”

“The climate crisis is a health crisis.”

The survey is still open at https://dauk.org/heatwave-survey-2026/

We would encourage as many healthcare workers as possible to complete it over the weekend. We particularly encourage you to add your lived experiences and stories.

A fuller report and letter to the Department of Health and Social Care will follow early next week.

We are a non-profit campaigning and lobbying organisation led by frontline doctors, for frontline doctors. We are volunteers and our collective aim is to give frontline workers a voice to be heard.

Please support our work by contributing to our crowd funder.

A red weather warning is in place for southern England and Wales with temperatures climbing above 33C in some parts of the country.

Forecasters expect June records to be challenged or exceeded during the current heatwave.

Survey

We’re asking healthcare workers to complete our anonymous survey and to tell us what conditions are really like on the ground.

Tell us how hot your workplace has been during this week’s heatwave. Does your main clinical area have working air conditioning?  Is the heat affecting patient care, staffing, or your own wellbeing?

Would you support a legal maximum temperature for workplaces, including hospitals?

The survey should take two or three minutes to complete and is anonymous.

Heatwave

Your experiences will help us build a clearer picture of how the NHS is coping during this heatwave.

DAUK will write to the Department of Health with the findings.

Please take a few minutes to complete our survey and share it with colleagues: https://dauk.org/heatwave-survey-2026/

We are a non-profit campaigning and lobbying organisation led by frontline doctors, for frontline doctors. We are volunteers and our collective aim is to give frontline workers a voice to be heard.

Please support our work by contributing to our crowd funder.