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LONDON: British health officials have reactivated emergency hospitals that were built at the start of the pandemic to handle a surge in COVID-19 cases that is putting existing wards under extreme pressure, particularly in London.
The UK has recorded more than 50,000 new cases of the virus a day over the past four days, driven in part by a new variant that is much more infectious and an increase in the number of people dying every day.
Doctors have warned they are struggling to cope, especially when so many colleagues are ill or have to isolate themselves, and paramedics and nurses have had to treat patients in ambulances due to a shortage of available beds.
An email to Royal London Hospital staff said he was now in “disaster medicine mode”.
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A spokeswoman for the National Health Service (NHS) said that Nightingale hospital in London was preparing to reopen if necessary.
“In anticipation of mounting pressures from the spread of the new variant of infection, the London region of the NHS was asked to ensure that the Nightingale was reactivated and ready to admit patients should it become necessary,” said. “That process is underway.”
The hospital, based at the Excel Exhibition Center in London’s Docklands and named for Victorian nursing pioneer Florence Nightingale, will have London doctors with additional support from the military and partners in the voluntary sector if needed, the said. spokesman.
The Nightingale hospitals are temporary sites built with the help of the military in a matter of days in March and April, when hospitals first struggled to cope with the influx of COVID-19 patients.
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