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London Nightingale Hospital will stop receiving patients this week, according to an email leaked to staff by the executive director of the field hospital.
In a message to staff this morning, Professor Charles Knight said: “It is likely that in the next few days we will not need to admit patients to the London Mockingbird, especially if Covid-19 in the capital remains under control.
“As a result, after the last of our first group of patients leaves, the hospital will be placed on hold, ready to resume operations when needed in the weeks and, potentially, months to come.”
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Your comments come later The independent He reported Friday that the hospital, built in the former ExCel conference center, had not received new patients in the past week and only had 19 patients on Friday. More have been discharged since then.
Similar field hospitals in Birmingham, Manchester and Harrogate are also not currently treating any patients.
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Downing Street confirmed that the hospital was “on hold”, while others in Manchester, Birmingham, Bristol and Harrogate will remain open and others in Sunderland and Exeter will open shortly.
Boris Johnson’s official spokesman said: “It is unlikely that in the next few days we will have to admit patients to London Nightingale as long as the coronavirus in the capital remains under control. Obviously that is a very positive thing and we are grateful to everyone in London for continuing government councils to protect the NHS.
“The nightingale will indeed be put on hold. He will be ready to receive patients if necessary, but we do not anticipate that to be the case. ”
The spokesperson said “it was not absolutely” the case that Nightingale hospitals had been a waste of money, adding: “We see the fact that nightingales have not had to be used meaningfully as a positive thing.”
In his message to staff, Professor Knight said that the decision to stop taking patients had not ended the role of the field hospital.
He said: “We must be prepared for the possibility that the number of Covid-19 cases will start to increase, as long as the government relaxes the rules of social distancing. That is why the London Nightingale, including our staff and volunteers, It will be ready if we are needed again. Work is also underway to consider how the role of the nightingale can be further adapted as the NHS seeks to resume the activity that had to be paused in the first phase of our response to the pandemic.
“As the Prime Minister said, we are now passing the first peak of coronavirus cases, and therefore the NHS is moving into the second phase of its response to Covid-19.”
Last month The Independent revealed that the nightingale had struggled to remove more patients from intensive care units in London due to a lack of sufficient staff to care for patients.
Hospitals were told they would have to release staff from their own units to care for patients transferred to Nightingale. The field hospital, which was built in just nine days, was designed to care for up to 4,000 patients who may need critical care and help breathe with a tube in the windpipe.
But because of its ability to treat patients, its admission criteria meant that most of the sicker Covid-19 patients could not be admitted.
The Chartered Society of Physiotherapy has warned against the use of Nightingale Hospitals for rehabilitation and recovery due to concerns that they are the wrong environment for patients.
Professor Knight told staff that he was “proud of the culture that we have developed among physicians and other staff gathered from across the NHS in London and beyond to mobilize this new type of hospital.”
“A special thanks to the Barts Health NHS Trust Board that agreed to host our new hospital built in less than two weeks just five weeks ago. It has been an incredibly humbling experience to see so many people from so many disciplines united for this mission. It is a privilege be a part of this Nightingale story.
“We are proud of you, and you should be proud of yourselves. Thanks to the determination and sacrifice of Londoners in following the advice of experts to stay home and save lives, fortunately we have not needed to expand the nightingale’s ability further from the first room. “
