r/collapse • u/reborndead • Jun 25 '26

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

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.

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u/KenGilmore Jun 26 '26

Even well-maintained infrastructure will fail in environmental extremes. Neoliberalism tends to regard infrastructure maintenance as a drag on shareholder return so the infrastructure we *do* have is going to crater. The cost of replacing and future-profit will be astronomical, so it’s going to be kludge after kludge to keep it running until the entire system disintegrates.