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Nightingale hospitals in Manchester, Sunderland and Harrogate have been put on hold in response to the surge in Covid-19 cases, but questions have been raised about where nurses will be located to staff them.
In a briefing in Downing Street today, Professor Jonathan Van-Tam, England’s deputy chief medical officer, and Professor Stephen Powis, NHS England’s national medical director, said there were more people hospitalized now with Covid-19 than before the country. went into lockdown in March, and deaths were on the rise as well.
“It remains the case that we asked some people in the first wave to wait longer for their operations, as staff had to be diverted to fight Covid-19.”
Stephen Powis
Cases are increasing most rapidly in the North West and North East regions of England, with Liverpool currently at the center of the second wave. There are currently more than 250 Covid-19 patients in beds managed by Liverpool University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, higher than any other trust.
Professor Powis said in the briefing: “In the last four weeks, Northwest and Northeast hospitals have witnessed a sevenfold increase in Covid-19 patients in their intensive care units and whether infections continue increasing by another four weeks, they could treat more patients than during the peak of the first wave. “
Stephen Powis
He announced that Nightingale hospitals in Manchester, Sunderland and Harrogate had been asked to “mobilize over the next several weeks to be ready to accept patients if necessary.”
Meanwhile, he also announced that regular testing of all healthcare personnel, whether they have Covid-19 symptoms or not, will also be introduced in the most affected areas in the north.
“This will help us keep the staff and patients in those hospitals as safe as possible,” he added.
Temporary Nightingale Hospitals were established in different areas of the country in March and April to provide critical care for Covid-19 patients if major hospitals at the local level were overwhelmed.
While they were not used much in the first wave, they were kept open in anticipation that they might be needed in the future if a second peak occurred.
Professor Powis said that how the Nightingales were used in the north of England this time would be left to local doctors and could be used for patients with Covid-19 or non-Covid-19.
More generally, Professor Powis indicated that the levels of staff redeployment that had occurred nationally during the first wave would not be encouraged again due to the impact it had on non-Covid-19 service delivery.
“It remains true that we asked some people in the first wave to wait longer for their operations, as personnel had to be diverted to combat Covid-19,” he added.
“Where we can, we don’t want this to happen again this time, but that depends on all of us doing whatever it takes to contain this virus in the community.”
Estephanie Dunn
However, Estephanie Dunn, regional director of the Royal College of Nursing in the North West, questioned how Manchester Nightingale would be staffed, given that the region entered a pandemic with 4,800 nursing vacancies across the NHS and nurses were “unemployed. “after the first wave.
“The RCN will provide the support necessary to safeguard the interests of the nursing community,” he added.
“We are fortunate to have a Nightingale Hospital on our doorstep, but with thousands of nursing positions vacant throughout the region, RCN would like to know how it will be staffed, as it is essential that there are nurses with the right skills. appropriate skills without leaving your substantial workplace under even greater pressure. “
Meanwhile, Susan Masters, director of nursing, policy and public affairs at the RCN, said that if nurses were to be reassigned from their normal duties during the second wave, they should be given adequate support and training and should not be asked to do jobs. “Outside of their skills and competencies.”
“With thousands of nursing positions vacant in the region, the RCN would like to know how the staff is going to be staffed.”
Estephanie Dunn
This morning’s briefing was followed by a statement in the House of Commons this afternoon from Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who emphasized that a new national lockdown was not on the horizon.
However, he said that local restrictions in response to the outbreaks should continue to protect the NHS, as he announced a new simplified regional alert system of three levels ranging from “medium”, “high” to “very high”.
Medium was equivalent to the current national restrictions of the six o’clock rule and pub curfews at 10 pm; high would reduce the interior mix; while very high would imply the additional step of closures of social spaces.
Liverpool would be under “very high” alert today, Johnson said.
While a national lockdown is ruled out, Johnson said doing nothing was not an option.
He said that if the virus was allowed to “rip apart,” then “grim mathematics dictates that we would suffer not only an intolerable number of deaths from Covid, but we would put such great pressure on our NHS with a second uncontrolled spike than our doctors and nurses simply could not pursue other treatments for cancer, heart disease and hundreds more, which have already been delayed and would be delayed again with serious long-term damage to the nation’s health.
