London Nightingale field hospital ‘dismantled’ as Covid-19 crisis deepens
- Reports suggest massive field hospital at London convention centre quietly dismantled
- UK government says emergency medical facilities are available and remain on standby
As Britain’s hospitals reel from an alarming surge in Covid-19 cases, mystery surrounds a massive field hospital in east London named after the famous nurse Florence Nightingale.
The government insists the emergency makeshift hospital at the city’s ExCeL exhibition centre is on standby, ready to be used, even as photos appear to show a facility stripped of equipment.
ExCeL London was the first and largest of seven “Nightingale hospitals” opened across the country. It was equipped in 10 days with the help of the military and opened on April 3 by Prince William amid patriotic fanfare.
The speed at which it was fitted with medical gear mirrored the quick construction of China’s field hospitals in Wuhan.
But a month later staff were redeployed and Nightingale Hospital London was placed on standby after having admitted fewer than 20 patients. The owner of the facility, UAE-based Abu Dhabi National Exhibitions Company, soon indicated it was ready for trade fairs and conferences.
But now the country is seeing a wave of new infections, particularly in London, driven by a fast-spreading new variant of the virus.
Nearly three-quarters of the population of England has been placed under the top tier of lockdown measures, severely curtailing New Year’s Eve celebrations.
Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland also have implemented strong lockdown measures.
National Health Service (NHS), the body that oversees public health policy and allocations in England, sent a letter to hospital trusts on December 23 which reminded them to plan for the use of additional facilities such as the Nightingale hospitals.
However, pictures of a bare facility published by various UK media outlets suggest Nightingale Hospital London would not immediately be operational.
Richard Tice, a member of Nigel Farage’s Brexit Party and a former member of the European Parliament, also tweeted a video from ExCel London claiming it was closed.
He said that after calling a number of official bodies, he eventually confirmed the closure from a security guard on the site.
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“The whole thing has gone, it’s vanished, it’s been dismantled. It may be sold, it may be put in the bin. Or it may be in a store,” he said. “What is clear is that although supposedly there is a crisis in London, there is no chance of using the supposed NHS Nightingale hospital because it’s gone.”
“What a disgraceful failure,” tweeted Angela Rayner, deputy leader of the opposition Labour Party.
“Like so much this government does the Nightingale hospitals were just an expensive PR stunt.”
The government has said that the hospitals are to be used if extra capacity is needed.
“As far as I know we are going to be making sure the Nightingale hospitals are available, they certainly are available, but they are there not to be used immediately as long as the other provision is still there,” Prime Minister Boris Johnson said this week.
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The only Nightingale hospital confirmed to be in operation is in Exeter, the southwest of the country, where there are less cases than London.
Even if Nightingale Hospital London was equipped, medical experts pointed out that trained intensive care nurses would be better utilised in established hospitals.
“Where do we find the specialist staff?” Dr Nick Scriven, the former president of the Society for Acute Medicine, told the Daily Mirror.
“The NHS simply does not have the capacity to spare anyone.”
The NHS is facing chronic staff shortages, compounded by absences due to illness and the departure of nurses back to their own countries in Europe in the wake of Brexit. The UK was short of 40,000 trained nurses before the pandemic hit, according to the government’s own statistics. One staff nurse at a leading London hospital, who didn’t want to be named, told South China Morning Post that many nurses who treat Covid-19 patients were not only exhausted, but also experiencing post-traumatic stress from the first wave earlier this year.
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Britain has recorded more than 72,500 confirmed coronavirus deaths, the second-highest death toll in Europe after Italy and the sixth-highest worldwide. The country reported a record number of new confirmed cases on Tuesday, more than 53,000, and 50,023 on Wednesday.
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The UK also reported Wednesday that another 981 people with the coronavirus had died. It was the highest daily number of deaths reported since April, although it followed a lag in reporting over the Christmas holidays.
On Tuesday, Londoners received a text message from the NHS telling them not to dial 999 unless it was an emergency.
Hospital staff across the country have been tweeting pictures of ambulances carrying sick people lining up outside hospitals waiting for beds.
“Just getting out of a&e after another loooooooong day,” tweeted Dr Punith Kempegowda after a shift at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham. “Almost all these ambulances are waiting with patients inside them for more than 3 hours because there’s no place in hospital to bring them in.” There were similar reports from London hospitals.
The Daily Mail reported the government was considering sending London’s Covid-19 patients to hospitals in Yorkshire around 280km away.
Additional reporting by Associated Press
