NHS hospitals declare critical incidents as heat causes IT failures

The extreme heatwave is having a significant impact on the NHS in England, with hospitals declaring critical incidents and reporting failures affecting cooling systems, diagnostic equipment and IT infrastructure.

The Met Office has issued its first-ever Red Warning for Extreme Heat covering three consecutive days, with the alert in place on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. The warning covers parts of southern England from Kent to Oxford and from Winchester to Brighton.

On 24 June 2026, Queen Alexandra Hospital, part of Portsmouth Hospitals University NHS Trust, declared a critical incident “following the failure of several chiller units supporting critical infrastructure during the ongoing heatwave”.

“The loss of cooling capacity has led to elevated temperatures in a number of areas across the trust, affecting our digital systems and critical clinical services, including theatres, cardiac catheter laboratories and diagnostic scanning facilities,” the statement added.

Mark Orchard, deputy chief executive and chief financial officer at Portsmouth Hospitals University NHS Trust, said: “The unprecedented pressures created by the current heatwave, combined with the failure of a number of our chiller units, have led to significant disruption across several of our services.

“Our teams are working hard to repair the affected equipment, restore systems safely and ensure we continue to provide safe care for our patients.”

Norfolk and Norwich University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust has also declared a critical incident, with hundreds of patients having appointments cancelled after MRI scanners stopped working during the hot weather.

On 25 June 2026, the trust said it had “no working MRI scanners” across its Norwich sites after the cooling systems that keep the scanners operational were affected by the heat and humidity.

At least 254 outpatient appointments were cancelled, with Norfolk and Norwich Hospital chief operating officer Chris Cobb confirming that “the operational teams are reaching out to other healthcare providers for help”.

He added that the trust’s “estates teams are working towards a cooling resolution, however, this situation may not be resolvable in the short term, particularly while the hot weather lasts”.

One doctor told The Guardian that their NHS trust faced “major issues” with IT servers overheating on Wednesday. “We thought we were going to lose everything, so we were all asked to turn off non-essential computers and electrical equipment, including lights,” they said.

Digital Health News contacted the Department for Health and Social Care and NHS England for comment.