A rare amber cold health alert has been issued for Stoke-on-Trent and Staffordshire as temperatures are set to plummet to -5C. The warning means there is an increased likelihood of deaths with a rise in demand for health services.
It came into force at 12noon today (January 2) and is expected to remain in place until 12noon on January 8. The news comes as the forecast for the next few days for freezing temperatures and some snow, with lows of between 0C and -5C.
Snow is expected to arrive in the Potteries on Saturday evening with a 36-hour Met Office yellow weather warning in place. The UK Health Security Agency said: “Forecast weather is likely to cause significant impacts across health and social care services, including a rise in deaths, particularly among those aged 65 and over or with health conditions.
“We may also see impacts on younger age groups, a likely increase in demand for health services, temperatures inside places like hospitals, care homes, and clinics dropping below the levels recommended for assessing health risks, challenges keeping indoor temperatures at the recommended 18°C leading to more risk to vulnerable people, staffing issues due to external factors (such as travel delays) and other sectors starting to observe impacts (such as transport and energy).”
Similar alerts are in place for the entire country.A UKHSA spokesperson said: “The alerting system provides an early warning when adverse temperatures are likely to impact on the health and wellbeing of the population. The weather health alerting system is provided by the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) in partnership with the Met Office.
“It’s intended to provide early warning to the health and social care sector, the responder community, the voluntary and community sector and government departments when adverse temperatures are likely to impact on the health and wellbeing of the population.”
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