18 1GM Thursday December 3 2020 | the times
News
Deaths from heat among older people
in Britain have more than doubled
since the early 2000s as the effect of
climate change on health worsens
across the globe, a report said.
Owing to an ageing and largely
urban population, as well as rates of
chronic disease, Britain has one of the
highest levels of vulnerability to heat,
according to the analysis in The Lancet.
There were an estimated 8,500 heat-
related deaths among the over-65s
across the country in 2018, more than
double the average for 2000 to 2004.
As this year is expected to be one of
the hottest on record, the fifth annual
report from The Lancet Countdown,
which tracks the link between climate
change and health, warns that no coun-
try is immune from the impact of rising
temperatures. The report is a collabora-
tion between experts from more than
35 institutions, including the World
Health Organisation and World Bank,
led by University College London.
Heatwaves are one of the main
effects of climate change, causing
deaths and illness from heat stress and
heatstroke and worsening heart and
breathing diseases, with the over-65s
among the most vulnerable, it says.
Across the world, heat-related deaths
of vulnerable people have increased by
54 per cent in the past two decades.
There were 296,000 in 2018. The condi-
tions are affecting jobs based outdoors.
Heat deaths double
among the over-65s
The average global temperature in
2020 is expected to be about 1.2C above
the pre-industrial baseline of 1850-
1900, according to the World Meteoro-
logical Organisation (WMO). That puts
it on track to be one of the three hottest
years on record. The hottest was 2016.
The Siberian Arctic was 5C hotter
than normal this year, and heatwaves
led to new temperature records in
Australia, the Caribbean, and areas in
Israel and the Middle East.
Under the Paris climate accord of
2015, countries are committed to trying
to curb global temperature rises to 1.5C,
a level beyond which the worst impact
of climate change will be felt.
Ian Hamilton, executive director of
The Lancet Countdown, said: “The
pandemic has shown us that when
health is threatened on a global scale,
our economies and ways of life can
come to a standstill.
“The threats to human health are
multiplying and intensifying due to
climate change and, unless we change
course, our healthcare systems are at
risk of being overwhelmed.”
Petteri Taalas, secretary-general of
the WMO, said that while the world is
currently experiencing a La Niña mo-
ment, which cools global temperatures,
that has “not been sufficient to put a
brake on this year’s heat”. He added that
“more efforts are needed” to reduce
greenhouse gas emissions.
Science is fast-forwarding into the
future, David Aaronovitch, page 33Katie Gibbons
GUY BELL/ALAMYChildbirth
safety fears at
city hospitals
Maternity services at two Nottingham
hospitals have been downgraded to
inadequate after inspectors reported
“several serious concerns”.
Following short-notice visits to Not-
tingham City Hospital and the Queen’s
Medical Centre, run by Nottingham
University Hospitals NHS Trust, over
two days in October, the Care Quality
Commission has imposed conditions
on the registration of maternity and
midwifery services “to prevent patients
being exposed to the risk of harm”.
Inspectors highlighted serious
concerns including staff shortages and
a failure to complete basic risk assess-
ments for women and babies. Some
staff had not finished training in key
skills and “did not always understand
how to keep women and babies safe”.
The report also said: “The service did
not have an open culture where staff
felt confident raising concerns without
fear.” However, the inspection team
also concluded that maternity services
at both hospitals “mostly” had enough
qualified staff “to keep women and
babies safe from avoidable harm”.
Maternity services were downgrad-
ed to inadequate overall, as well as
being rated inadequate, the lowest
possible grading, for being safe, effec-
tive and well led. Professor Ted Baker,
chief inspector of hospitals, said that
this was “to ensure mothers and babies
experience the safe, effective and
personalised care they are entitled to”.
The trust was contacted for comment.Renaissance man Young Man Holding a Roundel, by Sandro Botticelli, is on show
at Sotheby’s in Mayfair, central London, before a New York auction next month