Patient advocates are calling for heat to be the cause of death on death certificates

In view of the increasing number of victims of the heat wave, patient advocates have called for heat to be recorded as the cause of death on death certificates in the future. The board of the German Foundation for Patient Protection, Eugen Brysch, told the Rheinische Post that the consequences of climate change “must finally be given a face.” The Robert Koch Institute (RKI) recently put the number of heat deaths for the current year at 12,500. However, Brysch and the Association of Intensive Care Physicians suspect that there is a high number of unreported cases; The Ver.di union also warned of “dramatic” conditions in nursing homes. [...]