Heat protection in care facilities: challenges and measures

Dinslaken. Heidemarie Pavsek sits in her wheelchair in the sun at 27 degrees Celsius. Pleasant, she thinks. The 85-year-old woman has had significantly hotter days: in June it was up to 40 degrees in Dinslaken.

Pavsek lives in the Alfred Delp House, a Caritas care facility. “I actually tolerate the heat well,” she says. On hot days, Pavsek leaves her room and sits in the facility's air-conditioned common areas. “At least I can still move myself,” she says.

For many residents, the heat is almost unbearable. The Alfred Delp House with 80 residents is one of the exceptions: the facility is comparatively well positioned when it comes to heat protection. According to a survey by the German Hospital Society (DKG), only 14.5 percent of new buildings in the social sector are equipped with cooling systems. This is despite the fact that heat tends to be more dangerous for older people than for younger people. There are currently no figures for care facilities in particular.

This year, according to estimates by the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), around 12,500 people died due to heat across Germany. In North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) alone there were around 2,300. In June, two nursing homes in Dormagen and Krefeld were partially evacuated due to the heat.