Heat: 40 degrees in a nursing home? Why heat protection in care is a rarity
Only a few nursing homes are prepared for extreme heat. Those that are, pay for the measures primarily themselves. Politics is still looking for concrete answers.
An 85-year-old woman, Heidemarie Pavsek, living in the Alfred-Delp-Haus care home in Dinslaken, says she copes well with the heat, but many residents struggle. The care home, run by Caritas, is one of the few with good heat protection measures, including air-conditioned communal areas. According to the German Hospital Association (DKG), only 14.5% of new social welfare buildings have cooling systems, and there are no specific figures for care homes.
Around 12,500 people are estimated to have died in Germany due to heat this year, with 2,300 in North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) alone.
Written by urgent.news from Handelsblatt's report — not a translation of it. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
