Welsh Government spent £166m on field hospitals
THE amount the Welsh Government spent to set up, construct and provide equipment for Wales’ field hospitals has been revealed.
In less than eight weeks 19 field hospitals have been created across the country to provide additional capacity for the NHS during the Covid-19 crisis. The largest, the Dragon’s Heart Hospital at the Principality Stadium, in Cardiff, can hold as many as 1,500 beds and is one of the largest of its kind in the UK.
The Welsh Government says it took just five days to plan the project, which overlapped with the build phase. It welcomed its first patients late last month.
In addition to helping coronavirus patients with their rehabilitation, the field hospitals are designed to help normal hospital services get restarted and support social care services.
And it has now been revealed that £166m of Welsh Government funding was used for the setting up and construction of, and equipment for field hospitals in Wales.
It has still not been revealed how much these facilities are costing to run on a daily basis, although the Welsh Government has said these figures will be made public.
A spokeswoman also revealed the number of patients who have been treated in the field hospitals so far.
She said: “Thanks to the hard work of our health and care staff, and how well people in Wales have been following the stay-at-home regulations, health boards have been able to manage demand within normal hospital settings without having to use much of the additional field hospital capacity.
“This is positive news and the NHS is wellplaced to respond to any future challenges posed by the pandemic.
“A total of 35 people have been cared for in field hospitals so far and they remain an important part of our wider strategy to respond to coronavirus. They will be used flexibly over the coming months and we will carry out a national review of the position in June.”
While many of these sites remain empty, clinicians warn that a serious “second wave” of the virus could lead to a surge in patients being transferred into them.
First Minister Mark Drakeford said: “In responding to the coronavirus crisis the Welsh Government has had to act more swiftly and more expansively than ever before.
“Looking back, it’s striking just how much has happened in a period of just two months.”
Mr Drakeford went on to add that there has been a “transformation” in the capacity of our health service, with 368 beds being created through field hospitals and a further 4,666 available if needed.
He said 220 extra critical care beds were now available through the “huge efforts” of health board staff.
And he said to protect the frontline workers, 98.4 million items of personal protective equipment (PPE) have been issued since March 9 – a third of which were to care home staff.