England’s National Health Service reported its most strained summer on record, with extreme heat significantly amplifying patient demand across emergency departments, ambulance services, and telephone advisory lines during June, July and August.
NHS England’s performance data released on Thursday revealed that nearly 7.3 million people attended accident and emergency units during the three-month period, representing the highest summer attendance figures on record. This figure exceeded summer 2025 attendance by approximately 240,000 visits and was almost 1 million higher than summer 2022 levels. Ambulance callouts also reached an all-time high at 2.46 million, up from 2.32 million in the corresponding period the previous year. Meanwhile, NHS 111 telephone services handled just over 3 million calls, an increase of more than 100,000 compared to the prior year.
Health leaders characterized the situation as a “twin crisis,” with summer now joining winter as a major stress point on NHS capacity. Sarah Woolnough, chief executive of the King’s Fund health thinktank, emphasized that extreme heat has become a critical NHS pressure point rather than merely a weather phenomenon. Health Secretary Yvette Cooper acknowledged that extreme demand is no longer confined to winter months, signaling a fundamental shift in healthcare system challenges.
To address the crisis, the government allocated £1.5 billion in additional NHS funding to expand hospital capacity through new operating theatres, children’s wards, and improved maternity facilities. However, measures specifically designed to “heat-proof” the NHS received only £32 million of that allocation. Officials established a dedicated heat taskforce to develop strategies for managing extreme temperature impacts on healthcare delivery.
Experts noted that respiratory conditions drove much of the increased demand, with heat exacerbating breathing difficulties alongside wildfire smoke, trapped pollution, and extended pollen seasons. Additionally, hospital waiting lists in England rose to 7.3 million in July, the highest figure since last October, raising questions about meeting government targets to treat 92 percent of patients within 18 weeks by 2029.
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