Improving the Climate-resilience of Hospitals in England: Insights from overheating incidents

Climate-related hazards - including extreme heat, flooding, and air-quality deterioration - pose escalating risks to patient safety, staff wellbeing, and the resilience of NHS estates. While progress on decarbonisation has advanced, climate-adaptation measures have not kept pace. Here we have used Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust as a case study to investigate their current climate resilience and identify opportunities and barriers in increasing resilience in UK hospitals. We found that despite strong detection and response processes, current approaches remain reactive and constrained by ageing infrastructure, fragmented governance, and limited long-term investment.