Scotland’s healthcare buildings are ageing, inefficient, and increasingly vulnerable to climate change. With net zero targets looming and patient safety at stake, the time to act is now, says Colin Rees.

The Scottish healthcare system is central to everyday life, relied upon by millions for everything from routine check-ups to lifesaving treatment. Yet it is under immense strain. Record waitlists, staffing shortages, and financial pressures dominate the headlines, and rightly demand urgent attention. Capacity pressures are also mounting, with treatment needing to increase by a fifth to eliminate the backlog from the pandemic.

In this context, questions of how sustainable or climate-resilient the Scottish healthcare estate is could easily fall further down the list of priorities, but they shouldn’t. Because the buildings in which care is delivered are themselves critical to patient outcomes, and without urgent action, they risk becoming a weak link in the national health system.

NHS Scotland has committed to achieving net zero carbon emissions by 2040. That’s a necessary target that demands transformation on an enormous scale. At the same time, the impacts of climate change are no longer a distant threat. They’re here, and Scotland’s healthcare estate is struggling to keep pace.

This summer was a stark reminder. Four official heatwaves, the UK’s hottest summer on record, and the increased prevalence of wildfires across Scotland. Extreme heat puts lives at risk.

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In a joint project with Health Facilities Scotland (HFS), data from IES’ Virtual Environment software revealed a prevalent risk that could lead to more than 1,000 hours of predicted overheating in hospitals per year. This has the potential to not only extend patients’ recovery times in already stretched facilities but also makes working conditions more difficult for doctors, nurses and carers already under immense pressure.

Healthcare is a proud profession, and clinical teams are desperate to do their best work for their........

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