Norfolk has already recorded 37.7°C this summer.

The provisional temperature, measured at Lingwood, Strumpshaw Hill on 26 June 2026, became the highest June temperature recorded in the UK.

It was not an abstract national statistic.

It happened here, in the county where people were still travelling to work, visiting relatives, attending appointments and caring for others.

The familiar advice is sensible: drink more water, stay out of the hottest sun, check on people who may struggle in the heat.

But that advice is only the first layer of protection.

The harder question is whether Norfolk’s health and care system is planning for extreme heat as a recurring operational risk rather than an occasional summer inconvenience.

There is already evidence that the risk is local and serious. Norfolk’s Director of Public Health annual report for 2024/25 recorded 242 excess deaths during the heatwaves of summer 2022, with daily deaths 18% above the five-year average.

The same report warned that rising summer temperatures and more frequent heatwaves could worsen health risks without adaptation.

That matters because heat does not affect everyone equally.

Older people, people living with cardiovascular or respiratory conditions, those taking certain medicines, babies, pregnant women and people who live alone can be more vulnerable.

So can the workers supporting them particularly staff wearing personal protective equipment, travelling between appointments or working in warm clinical and care environments.

The national guidance is clear that this is not simply an individual responsibility.

The UK Health Security Agency’s advice for healthcare professionals says organisations should have hot-weather action plans tailored to their local context, identify people at risk, adapt care plans and consider environmental and behavioural changes.

Its heat-health action card asks health and social care providers to prepare before summer, including checking shading around buildings and putting local plans in place.

A June 2026 alert from UKHSA and the Health and Safety Executive made the workplace point even more plainly: PPE can increase the risk of heat stress, and employers should assess overheating risks, improve ventilation where possible and consider more frequent breaks and hydration for staff.

Norfolk’s own health-and-care planning has recognised the scale of the challenge.

 A report to the local Health and Wellbeing Board and Integrated Care Partnership said that 90% of UK hospitals were estimated to be at risk of overheating.

It also described extreme heat as a growing threat to health and warned that hospitals could become increasingly uncomfortable environments.

That does not tell us that every Norfolk hospital, GP surgery or care home is unsafe. It does tell us that “we have a heatwave plan” and “the building remains comfortable and functional during repeated extreme heat” are not necessarily the same thing.

There is a practical difference between responding to a hot day and designing for heat resilience.

Response might mean moving appointments, opening windows when it is cooler outside, offering drinks, changing rotas or checking on vulnerable patients.

Resilience means asking more fundamental questions: Which wards and waiting areas overheat first?

Can night-time cooling be achieved safely?

Is there enough external shading?

What happens when cooling equipment fails?

Can staff take proper breaks without reducing care capacity?

Are care homes and community services included in the same planning conversation as hospitals?

These are building, workforce and service-design questions as much as medical ones.

They also sit alongside other pressures.

NHS England said the May 2026 heatwave coincided with the busiest month on record for A&E attendances and the third busiest month ever for ambulance incidents.

That national picture cannot be used to prove that heat alone caused demand in Norfolk.

But it does show how extreme weather can arrive when services are already operating close to their limits.

Norfolk should therefore treat heat resilience as a permanent health-service planning issue.

That does not mean installing air conditioning everywhere, regardless of cost or environmental impact. 

It means publishing a clear local picture of risk and priorities, then investing in the measures that protect patients and staff: shading, insulation, ventilation, passive cooling, reliable backup systems, cooler clinical spaces and properly tested heat-health procedures.

The public should also be able to ask what “prepared” means in practice.

Which services have completed overheating risk assessments?

 Which buildings are prioritised for improvement?

How are care homes, home-care workers and unpaid carers being supported?

What lessons were taken from the 2022 heatwave and from the 37.7°C recorded in Norfolk on 26 June 2026?

This is not an argument against personal responsibility.

Drinking water helps. Checking on a neighbour helps.

But a health system cannot rely on individual behaviour to compensate for buildings, staffing arrangements or services that become harder to use when temperatures rise.

Norfolk has now had the warning in numbers.

The next question is whether the county treats those numbers as a temporary headline or as a planning brief.

Should heat resilience become a major priority for Norfolk hospitals, care services and public buildings?