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Letters

Heatwaves and hospital staff: Highest level was not reached

BMJ 2006; 333 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.333.7565.447-c (Published 24 August 2006) Cite this as: BMJ 2006;333:447
  1. Mike W Gill, regional director of public health (mike.gill@dh.gsi.gov.uk),
  2. Brian McCloskey
  1. Department of Health, London SW1 2NS
  2. Department of Health, London SW1 2NS

    EDITOR—The editorial by Kovats raises some important issues about public health action in response to severe weather.1 The article states that in July the United Kingdom experienced a more severe heat-wave than in 2003. Although the “average” temperature for July broke all records for any month, the temperatures in 2003 were higher for longer. This distinction is recognised in the heatwave plan for England, where alerts are based on duration as well as on daytime and night-time temperature.

    It is obviously very early to be drawing firm conclusions about the impact of the plan, just over two weeks after the last “level …

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