Extreme heat can increase demand for care while also affecting medicines, equipment, electricity and staff. A clinic may receive more patients with dehydration or worsening heart conditions just when high indoor temperatures make work harder. These pressures make heat an operational risk, not only a weather issue.
A heat action plan can identify high-risk patients, safe medicine storage, backup power, staff breaks and a referral route. Early warnings give teams time to prepare supplies and contact vulnerable patients. Staff must test and revise the plan because a document alone will not keep services running during an outage. Health facilities must prepare for heat as a service disruption. Assigning each task to a named role makes the plan easier to use when staff are already under pressure.