Are NHS Nightingale hospitals about to reopen as Covid cases soar?
NHS chief says more people in hospital than when government ordered lockdown
![Nightingale Hospital](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/4bzFYAVboeeVeLJCa44TXT-415-80.jpg)
NHS Nightingale hospitals in Manchester, Harrogate and Sunderland have been put on standby as coronavirus infections in the regions soar.
Revealing that there are now more patients in hospital with Covid-19 than when the government ordered the lockdown in March, the medical director of NHS England, Professor Stephen Powis, said: “As the infection rate has begun to grow across the country, hospital infections have started to rise.
“In the over-65s - particularly the over-85s - we are seeing steep rises in the numbers of people being admitted to hospital so the claim that the elderly can somehow be fenced off from risk is wishful thinking.”
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
![https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516-320-80.jpg)
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
A leaked email sent to medics had fuelled speculation that fresh Covid outbreaks would trigger the reopening of emergency hospitals built to increase NHS capacity during the first wave of infections.
According to Politico London Playbook, nurses who worked in the London Nightingale hospital during the early days of the pandemic were last week sent a “hint, hint” reminder that their training remains valid.
Four further Nightingale hospitals currently remain on standby, but have not been told to mobilise staff and “in some cases [have been] repurposed or... considered for alternative use”, says The Guardian.
London’s Nightingale hospital - based at the ExCeL conference centre in the east of the capital - “would be the largest intensive care unit in Europe if fully operational”, but treated a only small number of patients during the initial wave of infections, adds the newspaper.
Discussions are reportedly already under way about using Bristol’s dormant Nightingale hospital, at the University of the West of England’s Frenchay campus, to provide additional capacity for the city’s Eye Hospital.
And councillors in Harrogate had called for the Nightingale facility there to be used as a flu vaccination centre in the run-up to winter.
Meanwhile, the Nightingale hospital in Birmingham “is being readied again to take patients at 48 hours’ notice, according to a hospital CEO in the city”, The Guardian reports. And the emergency hospital in Exeter is being used for a Covid-19 vaccine study.
Sunderland’s Nightingale Hospital, which was opened by TV presenters Ant and Dec in May, is also ready to be used in the event of “another surge of coronavirus”, says regional news site ChronicleLive. The seventh hospital, in Washington, Sunderland, has not been used but will remain available as long as necessary, health authorities have said.
When the emergency medical centres were first set up, the government boasted about the swiftness of their response, with the London Nightingale hospital built in just nine days.
But a leaked document seen by The Telegraph back in April revealed that the London hospital was “turning away more coronavirus patients than it is treating”, owing to a lack of staff.
Create an account with the same email registered to your subscription to unlock access.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Chas Newkey-Burden has been part of The Week Digital team for more than a decade and a journalist for 25 years, starting out on the irreverent football weekly 90 Minutes, before moving to lifestyle magazines Loaded and Attitude. He was a columnist for The Big Issue and landed a world exclusive with David Beckham that became the weekly magazine’s bestselling issue. He now writes regularly for The Guardian, The Telegraph, The Independent, Metro, FourFourTwo and the i new site. He is also the author of a number of non-fiction books.
-
Charlotte Dujardin and equestrianism's dark side
In the Spotlight Olympic gold medallist and dressage star's suspension over horse whipping brings abuse in horse sports back into the spotlight
By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK Published
-
Why Roman epic Those About to Die has split the critics
Talking Point Sword and sandals miniseries starring Anthony Hopkins puts spectacle above story
By Irenie Forshaw, The Week UK Published
-
Why is China stockpiling resources?
The Explainer The superpower has been amassing huge reserves of commodities at great cost despite its economic downturn
By Richard Windsor, The Week UK Published
-
Biden tests positive for Covid in fresh blow to campaign
Speed Read The president said he would consider dropping out of the race if presented with a "medical condition"
By Rafi Schwartz, The Week US Published
-
How could J.D. Vance impact the special relationship?
Today's Big Question Trump's hawkish pick for VP said UK is the first 'truly Islamist country' with a nuclear weapon
By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK Published
-
The Tamils stranded on 'secretive' British island in Indian Ocean
Under the Radar Migrants 'unlawfully detained' since 2021 shipwreck on UK-controlled Diego Garcia, site of important US military base
By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK Published
-
Labour's first week in power
In the Spotlight The NHS, prisons and housing are at the top of a to-do list which risks crashing into 'wall of economic reality'
By The Week UK Published
-
'An Everlasting Gobstopper of offense'
Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
By Justin Klawans, The Week US Published
-
Britain's Labour Party wins in a landslide
Speed Read The Conservatives were unseated after 14 years of rule
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
Will voter apathy and low turnout blight the election?
Today's Big Question Belief that result is 'foregone conclusion', or that politicians can't be trusted, could exacerbate long-term turnout decline
By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK Published
-
Rescuing science from politics
Opinion We need a truly non-partisan Covid Commission that will sift through the story of the pandemic
By Mark Gimein Published