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Patients at the new 4,000-bed NHS Nightingale Hospital in London have been rejected due to a lack of nurses, it was said today.
The ExCeL Center field hospital has been unable to accept some 50 coronavirus patients who need “ life and death ” care since it opened on April 7.
Thirty of them were transfers from existing London hospitals that were unable to continue due to a shortage of nursing staff, The Guardian reports.
So far, the Docklands site has only had 41 patients through its doors, including four who have died, seven who have been demoted to less critical care, and 30 who are still being cared for.
With thousands of beds empty, there has been growing concern among London hospital managers that the nightingale is becoming a “white elephant” and is taking vital resources away from other neighboring sites.
Dozens of patients have been turned away from NHS Nightingale Hospital in East London (pictured) due to a lack of critical care nurses, it was claimed today.
A hospital bed and a respirator are displayed inside the ExCeL center in London, where so far only 41 patients have been treated for the deadly virus.
NHS documents seen by The Guardian state that it has been difficult to recruit nurses who are normally found in other hospitals.
A staff member said: ‘There are many people working here, including many doctors. But there are not enough critical care nurses. They are already working in other hospitals and are being run irregularly there.
“There are no people left over [specialist nurses] around to do this. That’s the problem.’
Boris Johnson paid special tribute to the two critical care nurses who stayed by his bed while he was in the Boys and St Thomas intensive care unit battling the virus. He claimed that he would not have survived without them.
The other 20 COVID-19 patients have also been rejected by the nightingale because they were “too bad,” the documents reveal.
Nightingale sites across the country were designed to take the pressure off of existing hospitals by treating those who need critical care.
A large amount of public resources was invested in the pioneering London site, with 200 servicemen helping to transform the exhibition center in just nine days.
If it were to reach full capacity, it would take more than 16,000 employees to run it.
But Boris Johnson and his team have repeatedly emphasized that nightingales are just contingency facilities, which if they remain empty as they are now is a sign that NHS strategic planning is working.
England’s Medical Director of Public Health, Professor Chris Whitty, has also said that if hospitals like the London Nightingale end up with more ICU beds than necessary, “it will be a success.”
Inside the field hospital in London’s Docklands is a sea of unused beds.
Earlier this month, NHS England Chief Executive Sir Simon Stevens said Nightingale London has not been used because 30,000 beds have been released in other nearby hospitals.
He said in a statement: ‘We have not yet had to make extensive use of Nightingale London thanks to the hard work of NHS staff, who have released more than 30,000 existing hospital beds, and to the public, who have played their part in staying at home and save lives.
“It will be a great success for the entire country if we never need to use them, but with more possible coronavirus waves it is important that we have these additional facilities in place and the treatment of patients.”
The ExCeL site is shown on March 27 during construction. Nightingale Hospital was built in just nine days.
A worker at ExCel London, during his conversion at the temporary NHS Nightingale Hospital
But a senior intensive care doctor told the Guardian: ‘The nightingale is clearly not a hospital. It is an emergency overflow facility to ventilate patients and prevent them from dying when hospitals have run out of space. ”
A NHS London spokesperson told MailOnline: “The most important point about the Nightingale staff is that thanks to their care and experience, the patients at that hospital are being treated, discharged, and ultimately saving their lives.”
‘There is still capacity available in the critical care network in the capital to care for all coronavirus patients and others who need our care, and while it is incredibly reassuring for staff and patients to have backup capacity at Nightingale to alleviate The pressure on the ICU departments when necessary, patients can be transferred to other hospitals in the city if they are better able to receive them at that time, as is always the case. ‘
The front exterior of the new NHS Nightingale in London is shown prior to its opening on April 7 with staff observing social distancing measures outside
Members of the armed forces were recruited to transform the exhibition center in London’s Docklands (pictured above) into a temporary hospital
