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Nightingale hospitals left empty as Covid cases soar past April peak and medics warn ‘vulnerable’ hospitals are on brink
NIGHTINGALE centres across England have been left empty as coronavirus cases soar past their April peak and medics warn "vulnerable" hospitals are on brink.
The majority of the seven Nightingale facilities across the country have not started treating coronavirus patients yet.
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Only the Exeter Nightingale has been treating patients since mid-November.
And London's Nightingale was shut and placed on standby soon after it was built.
The centre has also been stripped bare despite soaring coronavirus cases and medics facing a "staggering" number of patients.
The facilities - built at a cost of £220million - have been left mostly empty as medics warn there is not enough staff to run them, reports.
It comes as Covid hospital admissions in England rocketed past the April peak yesterday.
The number of people being treated for the killer bug on wards in England is now 20,426, compared to 18,974 patients recorded on April 12.
And the latest figures from NHS England, , show hospitals in London currently have the highest number of coronavirus patients.
There are currently 4,957 hospital beds occupied by Covid patients in the capital.
The south east faces the second highest number of patients, with 3,544, followed by the Midlands, with 3,515.
Dr Yvonne Doyle, Public Health England medical director, said: "This very high level of infection is of growing concern at a time when our hospitals are at their most vulnerable, with new admissions rising in many regions."
Meanwhile doctors have said the NHS is facing a "bleak" situation, and that the new mutant strain could lead to them being "overwhelmed".
It comes as a record 41,385 coronavirus cases were recorded on Monday.
The number of people who have now died from the killer bug also rose by 357, taking the total number of fatalities to 71,109.
Back on the wards today. Staggering amount of Covid."
Martin Llewelyn
Saffron Cordery, deputy chief executive of NHS Providers, said: "We know that the rate of Covid-19 admissions is rising and some trusts are reporting up to three times the number of Covid patients than at the peak of the first wave.
"This means hospitals and also ambulance services in Tier 4 areas and beyond are incredibly busy, compounded by increasing staff absences due to illness and the need to self-isolate."
And Martin Llewelyn, a professor of infectious diseases and NHS consultant, described the number of coronavirus patients in hospital as "staggering".
"Back on the wards today. Staggering amount of Covid," he wrote on Twitter.
"Striking difference from last time - large family outbreaks with teenagers/young adults the focus.
"Multiple family members being admitted. Not looking forward to next two weeks. Please follow the rules this New Year's Eve."
Last week Richard Tice, chairman of Brexit party Reform UK, visited the site and phoned health officials trying in vain to find out why it was empty.
He said: "The removal of the hospital is so complete that you wouldn’t know it had ever existed.
"Hundreds of millions of pounds spent on the Nightingale hospitals has been wasted as they’ve been dismantled."
The Nightingale at Birmingham’s NEC is empty, too while Sunderland’s is also on standby.
The Sun’s Dr Carol Cooper said a shortage of staff meant the Nightingales had no chance of ever hitting capacity.
NHS England said while three were on standby, Manchester was open for “non-Covid care”, Exeter and Harrogate as “specialist diagnostics centres”, and Bristol for “local NHS services”.
Infection rates in England are currently highest in areas of Essex, London and other parts of the South East.
Paramedics in the capital are receiving up to 8,000 999 calls each day.
London Ambulance Service described Boxing Day as one its "busiest ever days", with 7,918 callouts - up more than 2,500 on the 5,217 received on the same day last year.
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However, NHS boss Sir Simon Stevens has predicted that 22million Brits will be vaccinated by spring.
Sir Simon called it “the biggest chink of hope for the year ahead”.
He said: “We are back in the eye of the storm with a second wave of coronavirus sweeping Europe and, indeed, this country.
“We think by late spring, with vaccine supplies continuing to come on stream, we will have been able to offer all vulnerable people across this country Covid vaccination.
“That perhaps provides the biggest chink of hope for the year ahead.”
It comes as hospitals in the south of England face a rise in pressure due to the increasing number of coronavirus patients.
Dr Nick Scriven, of the Society for Acute Medicine, called the trend "extremely worrying" and said "systems will again be stretched to the limit".
He said: "It is not 'just the case' of using the Nightingale hospital as there are simply no staff for them to run as they were originally intended (mini intensive care units).
"They could play a role perhaps if used as rehabilitation units for those recovering but, again, where do we find the specialist staff - the NHS simply does not have the capacity to spare anyone."
'WALL-TO-WALL COVID'
Dr Katherine Henderson, the president of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine, begged Brits not to gather for New Year's Eve celebrations.
She told BBC Breakfast: "Please, don’t take a chance on this, please don’t make it likely that we have an additional surge [on New Year’s Eve].
"Don’t mix, wear masks, wash your hands, keep separate — all the things we know we really need people to take very, very seriously."
She described her experience in hospital on Christmas Day as "wall-to-wall Covid".
"The chances are that we will cope but we cope at a cost - the cost is not doing what we had hoped, which is being able to keep non-Covid activities going," she said.
"So we will stretch staff, the problem is at the moment we have a lot of staff sickness."
You don't have the beds that you need and you don't have the staff that you need."
Dr Katherine Henderson
Dr Henderson said emergency departments were "struggling" to cope with demand.
She told the : "If you can get a grip on community transmission and suppress the virus then you can start doing other things.
"But you cannot have the operating theatre open when you are in the soup of Covid – it is dangerous. You don't have the beds that you need and you don't have the staff that you need."
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Overall, a total of 2,329,730 have now tested positive for coronavirus in the UK.
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