While the India Meteorology Department’s (IMD) Santacruz and Colaba units recorded daytime temperatures of 35 and 33 degrees Celsius, respectively, on Sunday, and the mercury is expected to touch 40 degrees Celsius as May draws near, none of the four major civic hospitals have any special cooling facilities for treating heatstroke cases. This could be attributed to the vagueness of the 2019 Maharashtra State Action Plan on Climate Change and Human Health, which does not give specific directives to hospitals about addressing heat-related risks.

The Mumbai Climate Action Plan, which includes heat resilience strategies, was announced by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) in March 2022, but apart from mandating that heatstroke victims be prioritised and ORS be kept on hand, it doesn’t mention measures such as ice baths and cooling blankets.