New hospital will open with help from army

The government announced will open a temporary hospital to combat the increasing spread of coronavirus across the nation.

It has also called on a quarter of a million volunteers to join the effort to bolster support for the NHS.”

Thousands signed up in just hours.

The temporary hospital will be called NHS Nightingale and will have capacity for 4,000 people. It will open next week at the Excel centre in London and will have two wards.

The military is being enlisted to help, alongside NHS clinicians to make sure each person with the virus is being treated.

Sadly, 422 patients who tested positive for coronavirus have now died in Britain and there have been 8,077 confirmed cases, but the real number could be higher.

The directives brought in by Boris Johnson are in place to stop the NHS being overwhelmed when the virus peaks in the coming months. Retired NHS clinicians have also been asked to come back to help manage the crisis. The Health Secretary Matt Hancock said around 7,563 professionals recently retired from the NHS have so far answered the government’s call to return to work. These include nurses, midwives, paramedics and social workers.

Private Hospitals in Kent have also be drafted in to help the NHS.

Jo Nolan, Hospital Director of One Ashford Hospital said it was planning on how it could provide capacity.

Another location that could be considered for its use is the former site of the BMI Somerfield Hospital in Maidstone, which closed in April and remains empty.

Cllr Jonathan Purle (Con) at Maidstone council said: “I wanted to make sure the site was not overlooked when it came to talks considering the capacity of the NHS.”