Assessment of overheating risk in gynaecology scanning rooms during near-heatwave conditions: a case study of the Royal Berkshire Hospital in the UK

Gough, Hannah, Faulknall-Mills, Samuel, King, Marco-Felipe and Luo, Zhiwen ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2082-3958 2019. Assessment of overheating risk in gynaecology scanning rooms during near-heatwave conditions: a case study of the Royal Berkshire Hospital in the UK. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 16 (18) , 3347. 10.3390/ijerph16183347

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Abstract

Hospital buildings in the UK are at particular risk to rising summer temperatures associated with climate change. Balancing the thermal needs of patients, staff, and visitors is a challenging, complex endeavour. A case study of the ultrasound area of the Royal Berkshire Hospital’s Maternity and Gynaecology building is presented, where temperatures were measured for 35 days in waiting areas, staff offices, and ultrasound scanning rooms, aiming to assess the overheating risk posed to occupants. Local external temperature measurements were used for comparison whereby determining the indoor-outdoor environmental connection. Results show that most rooms had already breached standard overheating thresholds within the study period. Anthropogenic and waste heat from equipment has a noticeable effect on indoor temperatures. Local air-conditioning helped reduce the peaks in temperature seen between 14:00 and 17:00 for similar scanning rooms but is in contradiction to the National Health Service’s sustainability plans. Several low-level solutions such as improved signage, access to water, and the allocation of vulnerable patients to morning clinics are suggested. Barriers to solutions are also discussed and the requirement of sufficient maintenance plans for cooling equipment is empathised. These solutions are likely to be applicable to other hospital buildings experiencing similar conditions.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Architecture
Additional Information:	This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)
Publisher:	MDPI
ISSN:	1661-7827
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	30 August 2022
Date of Acceptance:	7 September 2019
Last Modified:	22 May 2023 07:39
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/151629

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