The NHS Nightingale Hospitals are seven critical care temporary hospitals established by NHS England as part of the response to the COVID-19 pandemic in England. The NHS Nightingale Hospital London opened first on 3 April 2020., six of the seven planned hospitals had opened, and by the following month all had been placed on standby. The Harrogate and Exeter hospitals were repurposed as diagnostic clinics in June and July respectively.
Overview
In March 2020, as the COVID-19 pandemic spread in England, the UK government and NHS England planned temporary large-scale critical care hospitals to provide cover for the projected increase in patients likely to need this type of facility, as part of a wide-scale reorganisation of NHS services to prepare for the pandemic. Similar hospitals were set up in other countries of the UK, namely Dragon's Heart Hospital in Cardiff, NHS Louisa Jordan Hospital in Glasgow, and an extension to Belfast City Hospital. The hospitals were named after Florence Nightingale, who came to prominence for nursing soldiers during the Crimean War and is regarded as the founder of modern nursing. In the event, almost all of the increased demand for critical care was met by expanding capacity in existing hospitals. By June, all the temporary hospitals had been placed on standby. Only two had admitted patients: 54 were treated at NHS Nightingale Hospital London and just over 100 at Manchester. In early June, the Department of Health and Social Care estimated the combined set-up costs of the hospitals to be £220million, and stated that running costs for the month of April were approximately £15m.
On 27 March, chief executive of NHS England Sir Simon Stevens announced a temporary facility providing up to 5,000-beds at Birmingham's National Exhibition Centre would open in mid-April. The hospital became operational on 10 April, with an initial 804 beds followed within 2 weeks by an additional 384 beds. It was officially opened as NHS Nightingale Hospital Birmingham by Prince William, using a video link, on 16 April. The hospital was designed as a 'step down facility', for patients recovering from COVID-19 or those not suitable for ventilation. On 5 May, it was announced that the 1188 bed hospital would be placed on standby, having admitted no patients.
On 3 April, NHS England announced that a hospital for the Bristol area was to be built in University of the West of England. The hospital is stated to have a planned capacity of up to 300 beds and is located in the Exhibition and Conference Centre on UWE Bristol's Frenchay campus. Spare student accommodation is also to be made available for doctors and nurses at the Frenchay campus. The hospital will have space to provide up to 1,000 beds, if necessary. According to the vice-chancellor of UWE, Steve West, all buildings and car parks required for the hospital have been leased to the NHS for a fee of £1, for as long as is needed. This hospital was officially opened on 27 April 2020, in a virtual ceremony, by Matt Hancock, Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex, and the chief executive of NHS England, Simon Stevens. It has the capacity to care for 60 patients, with the ability to scale up to 300 if required.
Exeter
On 10 April, it was announced that a temporary hospital would be provided in Exeter. The hospital, originally expected to be built in the Westpoint Arena near Clyst St Mary, and provide 200 beds, was due to be ready for use in early May. With the number of COVID-19 cases in the catchment area being lower than first expected, the decision was taken to switch to a smaller site at a former Homebase retail outlet in Sowton. From 6 July the 116-bed hospital was used for cancer screening, and was open for twelve hours each day.
Harrogate
On 3 April, a hospital for Harrogate, Yorkshire was announced by NHS England, with a 500-bed capacity, in the Harrogate Convention Centre. Tom Moore, a 99-year-old army veteran who had raised more £27M to support health service workers, officially opened the hospital on 21 April 2020. From 4 June the hospital was opened as a radiology outpatient clinic, offering CT scanning.
London
On 24 March 2020, the UK Secretary of State for Health and Social Care Matt Hancock, who is responsible for the NHS in England, announced that ExCeL London would be the first field hospital. It was planned to initially have 500 beds, with the capacity for 4,000–5,000 beds across its two wards if necessary later. Also on 3 April, the London hospital became the first to enter service when it was officially opened by Prince Charles by videolink. On 4 May 2020, it was announced that the hospital would be placed on standby, and would not admit any new patients.
Manchester
On 27 March, Simon Stevens also announced that a 1,000-bed hospital was to be provided in the Manchester Central Convention Complex, also due to open in mid-April. The hospital was ready to receive patients on Easter Sunday, 13 April 2020. The official opening, by Duchess of Cornwall in a recorded speech, took place on 17 April 2020.
Towards the end of March, nursing leaders expressed concern about where the extra workers to staff the new hospitals would be found. On 30 March, the government issued a call for airline cabin crew to volunteer to be cross-trained as specialist health assistants.
Support
The Tescosupermarket chain has plans to open pop-up branches of its convenience stores in the NHS Nightingale hospitals to provide convenient shopping facilities for hospital staff. It opened the first one in Birmingham Nightingale on 13 April. Discussions are ongoing to open shops in the London, Harrogate and Manchester Nightingales too. The technology companies Cisco and BT also volunteered to build the hospital's medical-grade computer networks.
