Open AccessImpact of climate change on hospital admissions: a case study of the Royal Berkshire Hospital in the UK
Author(s) -
Israelsson Jennifer,
CharltonPerez Andrew,
Sun Ting
Publication year - 2022
Publication title -
meteorological applications
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.672
H-Index - 59
eISSN - 1469-8080
pISSN - 1350-4827
DOI - 10.1002/met.2084
Subject(s) - climate change , hospital bed , health care , environmental science , medicine , climatology , emergency medicine , nursing , economics , ecology , geology , biology , economic growth
Global warming is projected to have major implications on global health. It is however not yet clear how this will translate to impacts on the healthcare system. By linking changes in temperature with changes in required bed days at a hospital level, through the use of a simple bed model, we quantify the projected impacts UK hospitals will need to adapt to. We show that there is already a local peak of bed days required in the main summer months due to hot temperatures. The results further show that there will be a significant increase during the main summer in both the mean and maximum number of beds needed, but a non‐significant decrease during the peak winter months. These changes lead to a more constant need of care of the year and shift the seasonal cycle of lowest hospital needs.