London’s Nightingale hospital ready to receive patients

London’s Nightingale hospital is ready to receive patients after frantic construction work in recent days to reopen the site and help relieve pressure on the capital’s overstretched NHS trusts.

Pictures from last week shared with The Independent show workmen replacing flooring at the ExCel Conference centre based in London’s Docklands after it was ripped out in December. It needed to be replaced before any other building work could start.

More than one-third of London’s hospital beds are now occupied with coronavirus patients, with the total exceeding 6,800 patients on Tuesday. Across England, hospitals are treating more than 26,000 patients, with numbers up 50 per cent since Christmas Day. 

Under an initial plan, signed off only a week ago by NHS England and the Treasury, the makeshift hospital had been due to reopen on Monday.

A team of more than 100 workers have scrambled to replace flooring, restore partitions and rebuild toilets and other facilities to get the site ready.

It could open later this week, initially as a rehabilitation and step-down service for patients recovering after treatment in hospital and who are almost ready to go home. They will not be Covid-positive patients.

In this first phase, the field hospital will have 64 beds that will be staffed by existing NHS workers, as well as support from military reserves if needed.

A second phase for the hospital, agreed only in the last week, will see more than 360 beds built on the site by medical construction firm CFES.  

The field hospital was originally designed to hold up to 4,000 seriously ill, ventilated coronavirus patients in the event that the UK was overwhelmed last April.

The numbers of patients were much lower than feared and hospitals in London were reluctant to send patients to the Nightingale because of concerns that it was less safe and that there were not enough staff.

Many NHS trusts were told that if they wanted to transfer patients to the hospital, they would need to send nurses and doctors too.

In total, the hospital treated fewer than 60 patients during the time it was open.

It is thought the cost of repurposing the ExCel site was about £45m in April; it is unclear how much the new rebuilding will cost taxpayers.

According to sources, the original flooring was removed in early December, with the partitions used for walls and screens being salvaged and reused for this latest phase.

Dozens of electricians, plumbers and construction workers have been working 10-hour days over the past week to get the site ready. As well as the physical bed spaces, they have also built a new entrance and atrium.

All the staff have been made to sign non-disclosure agreements.

One key delay for reopening the hospital has been to ensure a stable, controlled temperature of 22C for patients.

A spokesperson for NHS London said: “In response to pressure on the NHS in London, hospitals have opened hundreds more critical care beds, boosting capacity by almost 50 per cent.

“The London Nightingale is fully on track to provide rehabilitation if needed for people who are recovering after an emergency hospital stay, freeing up other beds in hospital for Covid patients.”

NHS England said the date for reopening was under daily review depending on the pressure on hospitals in London.

It said the hospital beds were ready and would be opened for patients when considered necessary, and that all ventilation and heating was in place.