Nurses say that a group of patients at the UCSF Medical Center at Parnassus were subjected to torrid indoor temperatures of 98 degrees or more during this past week’s heatwave, as the hospital does not have air conditioning on certain floors.

KGO has an alarming story today reporting that there is apparently no air conditioning on some floors of the UCSF Medical Center at Parnassus, which became quite a health hazard for patients and nurses during the incredibly hot temperatures the city has endured the last week or so. To be specific, KGO notes that “on certain floors, there is no air conditioning” at the UCSF Parnassus hospital, and that they’ve confirmed this information with "more than a half a dozen” nurses.

"Right now, it is so miserably hot on our floor. It is 95-100 degrees and we are taking care of extremely-ill patients," a nurse named Melton Smith told KGO. "My anger level is up to here. I've been dealing with this for years and I don't know what else to do. I'm sick of it and we're all sick of it."

So this wasn't a breakdown — the lack of air conditioning on some floors is something the facility has reportedly been dealing with “for years.”

Most nurses who commented to KGO were unwilling to give their names. But one of them commented to the station, "Especially from a top hospital in the US, it's really ridiculous. I can't even put on my gloves to do the work that I need to do to take care of my patients because my palms are sweating from the heat.”

UCSF did not comment to KGO for this story, but the aforementioned nurse Smith did share an email he received from the UCSF CEO. "I'm really sorry about the situation," that email said, adding, "We've made substantial investments in cooling over the last decade and will continue to do so."

There was an implication in this story that some of these areas of the hospital were not supposed to be open to patients — the hospital is about to undergo a major expansion in the coming years — and perhaps this is an issue of overcrowding?

And it sounds like these “substantial investments” have not yet managed to air condition the entire facility. And the recent heat wave now appears to be over, as the ten-day forecast calls for very normal SF temperatures for this time of year.

So realistically, it’s highly unlikely that we’re going to see any more temperatures in the neighborhood of the 90s for the rest of 2024, and until next spring. But in the global warming era, the lack of air conditioning could still be an issue at UCSF Parnassus every summer and autumn going forward.

Related: This Past Week Was a Reminder of Why You Can't Trust Weather Apps for SF Heatwaves [SFist]

Image: UCSF Medical Center via Yelp