Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Top hotel puts up nurses over family infection fear
NURSES working with Covid-19 patients are being put up in Belfast’s Grand Central Hotel over fears they could infect their families.
Medics doing “back-to-back” shifts are also staying at the Bedford Street accommodation if they have a long way to travel to get home, it is understood.
The Daily Mirror has been told one health worker is moving out of their Belfast home and has been told they could be gone as long as 16 weeks.
Belfast Trust sources confirmed they are “providing alternative accommodation”, including the Hastings Hotel.
But they added the hotel is being used primarily for “initial” stays before medics are moved to flats, apartments and Airbnbs in the city for the longer term.
A Trust source said: “It’s about staff who are working with Covid-19 patients who just can’t go home because, for example, they have someone vulnerable at home, someone elderly say.
“It’s about protecting our staff and their families. There’s a process, forms to be filled in and criteria to be met, but the stay at the Grand Central is only an initial stage before something longer term is sorted out.”
It is understood there are more than 100 rooms or apartments available to Belfast Trust currently.
It is also believed other health trusts are involved in similar set-ups with local hotels being used for staff unable to return home after their shifts.
The news comes as St Malachy’s College in North Belfast is to be used by health staff at the nearby
Mater.
NHS workers will be able to use showers and changing facilites at the school, according to a letter from the principal shared via social media on Tuesday. It added staff “should be pleased and indeed proud” that the school’s facilities will “play a vital role in the fight against the silent enemy Covid-19”.
Elsewhere, some Belfast City Council leisure centres are also being made available to health workers for similar reasons.