A fresh cold health alert has been issued, warning of “significant impact” with an increase in deaths and demand for the health services. An amber alert has been issued for the East Midlands with a score of 12 out of a maximum of 16.
The forecast for the next few days across the East Midlands is for freezing temperatures and some snow, with Nottingham temperatures not getting into double figures, with lows of -2C. In Derby it’s a similar picture, with a low of -2C and in Lincoln temperatures will fall to -3C.
Snow is forecast to hit the region on Saturday evening, although a weather warning has been issued for three days. 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).”
The amber cold health alert is in place from January 2 at noon until January 8 at noon. 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.”