Hospitals should create their own heat protection plans

Hospitals should create their own heat protection plans

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Berlin Hospitals must create their own heat protection plans in order to be prepared for heat waves. The chairman of the German Alliance for Climate Change and Health (Klug), Martin Herrmann, called for this today in Berlin at a press conference of the Berlin Heat Protection Action Alliance.

The alliance has drawn up model heat protection plans for hospitals, among others, on the basis of which the Federal Ministry of Health recently presented national heat protection plans for hospitals and care facilities.

The individual hospitals could use these sample plans to create their own plans that take the respective structural requirements into account, said Herrmann. Among other things, this involves identifying heat islands in the hospital and cool rooms to which vulnerable patients could be brought during heat waves.

The president of the Berlin Medical Association, Peter Bobbert, explained that the heat protection plans for hospitals also included many tasks that could be implemented immediately and that were not expensive: educating and training employees, for example. It is also important to distribute responsibilities in hospitals and to appoint employees who will ensure that patients and staff are protected during a heatwave, said Bobbert.

Every heat death is unnecessary

Heat is a danger to health. Heat kills people, stressed Bobbert. And the number of hot days will continue to rise. The danger to people’s health will therefore become greater. The aim must be that no one in Germany should die from heat.

Every heat-related death is unnecessary, stressed Bobbert. It is easy to protect yourself from the heat. The best medicine against the heat is to follow certain rules of conduct: above all, to avoid the heat and to drink enough. It is a task for society as a whole to look after people who cannot implement these simple behaviors: old people, for example, or the homeless.

Herrmann stressed: We also have to prepare ourselves for the danger of a heat dome, where a heat wave stays in one place for a longer period of time. If such a heat dome were to form over Berlin or the Ruhr area this summer, we would not be prepared for it. That is why such a scenario must be played out. And all institutions must put the issue of heat prevention on their agenda.

Commitment to heat protection increases

The Berlin Heat Protection Action Alliance was founded in 2022 by the Berlin Medical Association, von Klug and the Senate Department for Science, Health and Care. Two years later, the alliance has 20 members, including the Berlin Hospital Association, the Berlin Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians and individual hospitals such as the Charité or the Havelhöhe Community Hospital.

Participation in our alliance has increased significantly, said Herrmann. We have found many new partners. This has also given us a better understanding of the dangers posed by heat. Only with a large alliance can we counter the danger posed by heat, said Herrmann. The newest member of the alliance is the Berlin Chamber of Pharmacists, with whose help a model heat protection plan for pharmacies was drawn up.

Herrmann stressed that climate protection, i.e. the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, is the most important preventive measure to reduce the danger posed by heat. If we do not make great progress in climate protection, we will end up with heat scenarios that we can no longer control, said Herrmann. That is why climate protection is clearly part of heat protection.

Bobbert pointed out that the German Medical Association had already called for a climate-neutral healthcare system by 2030 in 2021. Against this background, we are now calling on politicians to include sustainability in the current hospital reform, said Bobbert. If the German hospital landscape is already being restructured, this opportunity must be used to reduce hospitals’ greenhouse gas emissions.

Heat protection is more important than monument protection

The Berlin Senator for Science, Health and Care, Ina Czyborra, announced that the Berlin Senate wants to develop a nationwide heat action plan across all departments by 2025. This will include both preventive measures and acute measures to reduce heat risks. We also need to pay more attention to areas such as transport, construction and work, said Czyborra.

At the moment, it is happening that heat protection is being hampered by monument protection. In the future, we will have to decide what is more important. Czybolla stressed: We have to be clear that heat protection is more important than monument protection. © fos/aerzteblatt.de

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