This review, commissioned by the Research Councils UK Living With Environmental Change (LWEC) programme, concerns research on the impacts on health and social care systems in the United Kingdom of extreme weather events, under conditions of climate change. Extreme weather events considered include heatwaves, coldwaves and flooding. Using a structured review method, we consider evidence regarding the currently observed and anticipated future impacts of extreme weather on health and social care systems and the potential of preparedness and adaptation measures that may enhance resilience. We highlight a number of general conclusions which are likely to be of international relevance, although the review focussed on the situation in the UK. Extreme weather events impact the operation of health services through the effects on built, social and institutional infrastructures which support health and health care, and also because of changes in service demand as extreme weather impacts on human health. Strategic planning for extreme weather and impacts on the care system should be sensitive to within country variations. Adaptation will require changes to built infrastructure systems (including transport and utilities as well as individual care facilities) and also to institutional and social infrastructure supporting the health care system. Care sector organisations, communities and individuals need to adapt their practices to improve resilience of health and health care to extreme weather. Preparedness and emergency response strategies call for action extending beyond the emergency response services, to include health and social care providers more generally.

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Impact of extreme weather events and climate change for health and social care systems

Building optimization and control algorithms implemented in existing BEMS using a web based energy management and control system

This study employed two ventilation indexes: local mean age of air and air change rate per hour, to investigate wind-induced natural ventilation of 260 wards of a multi-storey hospital building in ...

Numerical investigation of wind-driven natural ventilation performance in a multi-storey hospital by coupling indoor and outdoor airflow

Hospital buildings are required to secure a variety of indoor environments according to the diverse requirements of patients and staff. Among these requirements, thermal comfort is an important design criterion for indoor environmental quality that affects patients' healing processes and the wellbeing of medical staff. The patients’ thermal comfort is given priority due to their medical conditions and impaired immune systems. Thermal comfort and related contexts have been well-covered in many research articles; however, the number of review articles is limited. This article aims to conduct a holistic and critical review of existing studies offering insights on future research trends (180 articles were analyzed). The key research themes are identified using scientometric analysis. Focus is on influencing factors, field-surveys, improving measures and energy saving related to thermal comfort. The primary outcome concludes that ventilation systems play a key role in maintaining acceptable, thermally-comfortable conditions for patients and medical staff. It is also found that acceptable thermal comfort is highly case-dependent and varies substantially based on the health condition of the patient as well as the type and level of staff activities. The measures currently mentioned to minimize energy consumption are also discussed. Some interesting issues, including the inaccuracy arising from the use of predicted mean vote (PMV) and the impact of gender, age, and related factors on thermal comfort, have been noted. This review provides insights into the design and assessment of hospital thermal environments.

Thermal comfort in hospital buildings – A literature review

Hospital wards and modular construction: Summertime overheating and energy efficiency

https://www.pure.ed.ac.uk/ws/files/16433509/E_B_Reng_Lomas_Short_Fair_Glenfield.pdf

Alistair Fair

Papers

Performance of hospital spaces in summer: A case study of a ‘Nucleus’-type hospital in the UK Midlands