“Hospitals should urgently assess resilience of HVAC infrastructure in extreme heat”

Following recent extreme temperatures across the UK – including national coverage of hospitals struggling with “dangerous overheating” during June’s heatwave – estates and facilities teams in hospitals are being urged to reassess the resilience of their cooling and pumping infrastructure.

The call comes from Jason Cox, sales director at Wilo UK. He warned that as hospitals continue to battle rising internal temperatures, increased demand on chilled‑water systems put greater strain on pumps that support air handling units and critical cooling across wards, theatres and diagnostic equipment.

Jason stressed that the sector must now treat cooling resilience as a top priority. He said:

We have truly entered into unchartered territories with climate change, and we must react fast. Clinical environments rely on stable cooling to protect patients, staff and equipment. When temperatures surge, pumps and cooling assets work significantly harder, increasing the risk of early breakdowns, unplanned outages and unsafe internal conditions. We’re seeing more emergency failures that could have been prevented with better monitoring.”

Jason’s comments follows on from reports that hospitals declared critical incidents during the heatwave, as equipment like cooling units for entire hospitals started failing in record-breaking temperatures, and some trusts reporting internal temperatures above safe clinical thresholds. With climate patterns shifting, Jason warned that hospitals need to adopt condition‑based monitoring (CBM) methods to stay ahead of failures.

He said:

Condition‑based monitoring gives estates teams real‑time visibility of pump performance, energy efficiency and early signs of wear. Hospitals can’t afford reactive maintenance – not when cooling protects vulnerable patients and keeps theatres operational. A predictive approach is now essential for resilience, safety and cost control.”

He added that CBM supports the NHS’s sustainability and net zero goals by improving pump efficiency and reducing unnecessary water and energy use – both of which tend to spike during heatwaves. The company provides a range of solutions for critical facilities.