“You’ve got these various different crises coming to bear at once, and there’s no doubt the cost of living crisis is in a bigger driver amid all of this,” he said.“We have been concerned for months now, it has been very clear this is coming so it’s not as if the Government hadn’t seen this ahead of time.
“We know that cold kills a lot more than heat does in the UK so straight away we have a big problem when it comes to winter.” Professor Mitchell said health effects from cold – such as impacts on lung and heart conditions, hypothermia, as well as falls on icy ground – start affecting people when the temperature drops to between 0 and 10°C. These type of temperatures last months.
Emma Rubach, head of health advice at Asthma and Lung UK, said people with lung conditions faced a “triple whammy of hazards” this winter, including plummeting temperatures, rising flu cases and circulating Covid-19 cases.could make things even harder as having a warm home is an important way people with lung conditions can avoid them worsening.
Analysis from the organisation showed that more than 25,000 people die from pneumonia in the UK each year.