Heat causes life-threatening health problems and excess mortality

Municipality is heatproof if

• There are as few heat deaths as possible.
• Residents know how to act in case of heat stress symptoms and know when to contact their GP or emergency services.
• The Emergency Department and relevant hospital departments can properly accommodate any increase in patients during a heat wave.

Measures

• A local Heat Plan.
• A Heat Protocol, focused on the Emergency Room and relevant hospital departments.
• A communication strategy to inform residents during a heat wave.

Tips

Heat plan

• Determine who is in charge of the project when drawing up the heat plan (municipality, regional GGD or consultancy firm).
• Create a local heat plan for your own municipality, together with all local organizations that need to be involved. Use available tools and examples (all in Dutch):
  • Guide to local heat plan
  • RIVM website National heat plan including communication material
  • Sample local heat plan for a large municipality:
    • Local heat plan for the municipality of The Hague
    • Local heat plan for the municipality of Groningen
  • Example local heat plan for a medium/small municipality:
    • Local heat plan for the municipality of Tiel
    • Local heat plan Bommelwaard (municipality of Maasdriel and Zaltbommel)
  • Financing option for (among other things) drawing up a local heat plan: Healthy and Active Living Agreement
  • Protecting vulnerable people against heat: an interview about the National Heat Plan
  • Heat and individual measures – GGD
  • Heat and loneliness map for all municipalities
  • Effectiveness of heat measures
• The local heat plan is activated when the National Heat Plan (RIVM) is activated.
• Heat waves often occur during the holidays and do not take week/weekend days into account. Thus, ensure sufficient availability of people during the holiday period and during weekends.
• The local heat plan has an annual cycle:
  • In the spring, the summer season is prepared and the previous year's agreements are possibly adjusted based on the evaluation of the previous autumn, new insights and possible new partners.
  • When the National Heat Plan is activated, the agreements made are implemented.
  • In the autumn, the possible implementation of the Local Heat Plan will be evaluated, the experiences will be evaluated and agreements made will be adjusted if necessary.

Emergency Department (ED) heat protocol

Preventing overloaded emergency services lies on the one hand in preventing heat stress symptoms in the population (see 1. Local heat plan) and on the other hand in logistical preparation for more admissions to the ER (emergency department).

The organizational managers of the ER and relevant hospital departments draw up a heat protocol that can be activated if the RIVM activates the National Heat Plan. This falls under the responsibility of the GHOR and legally under the Safety Regions Act.

• The Heat Protocol contains agreements on scaling up staff and availability of equipment (including ambulances) during a heat period.
• Example emergency room heat protocol: not yet available.

This is the basic heat plan, see heat effect 2 for what to do in extreme heat waves.