London Nightingale to reopen in days as Covid surge starts to overwhelm hospitals in capital
THE London Nightingale is set to reopen within days as a surge of Covid cases is overwhelming hospitals in the capital.
Orders came last week to be ready to reopen the flagship facility built at the start of the pandemic, but barely used in recent months.
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Other Nightingales across England are also being "readied" for use if needed - after pictures showed the facilities lying empty and stripped bare.
It comes as Covid hospital admissions soared beyond the peak of the first wave in April and cases have been over 50,000 for the past six days.
A spokesperson for the NHS said the reopening date is under daily review, adding: "We are working hard to prepare NHS Nightingale Hospital London to take patients if necessary.
"It will provide rehabilitation for people who are recovering after an emergency hospital stay and who are not Covid positive, freeing up other beds in hospital for Covid patients.”
It came as:
- An 82-year-old man became the first person to get the Oxford AstraZeneca jab this morning as the new vaccine was rolled out to hospitals
- Boris Johnson has told primary kids to return to schools today if they are open - but thousands of places have stayed shut in Tier 4 areas across the country
- Education unions said staff were at "serious risk" of infection by returning to schools and called on the Prime Minister to meet to discuss safety
- Hospitals across the country are filling up with more Covid patients - with now a quarter more people needing treatment there than in the first wave
It comes as there are already a third more Covid patients in hospitals than in April, with 25,000 battling the virus on wards.
Experts say the peak of this wave is two weeks away, with hospitals and medics struggling with the increase of cases.
But it claims there will only be 300 beds out of the 4,000 available back in March.
The number ready for use is believed to be ready to shift depending on demand.
NHS England medical director Stephen Powis has described the Nightingale hospitals as "our insurance policy, there as our last resort".
He told the Downing Street press conference at the end of December: "We asked all the Nightingale hospitals a few weeks ago to be ready to take patients if that was required."
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London's Nightingale at the ExCel centre was shut and placed on standby soon after it was built.
The facilities - built at a cost of £220million - have been left mostly empty as medics warned there is not enough staff to run them, reported.
