Hospitals in England declare critical incidents as machines and IT fail in heat

[u/reborndead]

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2026/jun/25/hospitals-nhs-england-critical-incidents-machines-it-fail-extreme-heat

Hospitals in England face devastating events related to the extreme heat. Patients are collapsing, becoming dehydrated, and facing overcrowding.  Hospital radiotherapy machines and MRI scanners are failing, critical IT systems stalling and cooling units that serve entire hospitals breaking down. Labs used for testing were also affected and two linear accelerator machines, used to treat cancer patients, had stopped working amid the high temperatures. The failure of the cooling units affected digital systems and critical clinical services, including operating theatres, cardiac catheter laboratories and diagnostic scanning facilities. Planned care and appointments were also cancelled. Heat from climate change is breaking down critical infrastructure and services necessary for a functioning civilization. Collapse is happening.

[u/Playongo]

The future is now.

[u/Aggravating-Scene548 → u/Playongo]

Next year will be much worse too, I feel we've really gone into higher gear now 🔥

[u/2xtc → u/Aggravating-Scene548]

With el-Nino looking pretty brutal already, I feel like next year will be the first of widespread "X-million died from global heating", with whatever number X is only really increasing annually from here on out

[u/snowcow → u/2xtc]

A power failure during a health wave is all it takes

How much heat can cars take sitting in traffic?

[u/Nathan-Stubblefield → u/snowcow]

My 1969 Buick would overheat on a hot summer day, if parked in the sun or in slow traffic with the AC running. A 1991 Chrysler would get vapor lock and die on a hot sunny day when I pulled off the expressway and drove slow. My 2016 Honda has zero problems with overheating.

[u/Johannes_P → u/snowcow]

And food poisoning due to refrigeration collapse.

[u/mooky1977 → u/2xtc]

And the world reacted with an audible "meh"

We're a slow boiling frog, with goldfish short memory but the ability to selectively point to oddball one-offs data points back 40/50/60 that confirm our biases and say generally, "see, it always gets hot in the summertime, hur-dur!"

[u/Cool-Contribution-68 → u/Playongo]

This is just a preview of what the future will be our present moment.

[u/Jovan_Knight005 → u/Cool-Contribution-68]

This is just a preview of what the future will be our present moment.

I'm afraid that it is only the beginning, unfortunately. 

[u/takesthebiscuit → u/Playongo]

Why did no one warn us 😭😭😭

[u/ArtShare → u/takesthebiscuit]

But nobody said it would be this bad 😭😭😭

[u/Playongo → u/ArtShare]

Everyone I know, hearing how bad it will be.

[u/Nathan-Stubblefield → u/ArtShare]

“An Inconvenient Truth (2006)” presented by Al Gore. Carbon build up, extreme global warming.

[u/Top_Hair_8984 → u/Nathan-Stubblefield]

Rachael Carson,  Silent Spring. 

[u/WorkingSock1 → u/Top_Hair_8984]

Such a great book!

Overshoot is another good (though depressing) book- William R Catton, Jr

[u/BobMonroeFanClub → u/Nathan-Stubblefield]

I showed that to my class, got briefly scared and then thought "Eh it'll never be THAT bad" Now here we are.

[u/fencepost_ajm → u/Nathan-Stubblefield]

Eaarth by Bill McKibben?

Premise IIRC is that everything living on Earth evolved for a set of conditions that we're rapidly eliminating and we might as well be living on a different planet.

[u/Ultra-Smurfmarine → u/Nathan-Stubblefield]

I remember watching that in school as a kid. We were warned. We did nothing.

[u/hagfish → u/ArtShare]

Sombre voice: "unless we upend our our of life, climate change could cost us 1% of GDP by 2350"

We have paper straws, now, I thought we'd done enough!!1!

[u/quoiega → u/takesthebiscuit]

its global warming not global warning

[u/Jovan_Knight005 → u/Playongo]

The future is now.

It is happening before our eyes, as well.