Nightingale like war zone, says ex-soldier

A FORMER soldier has told how working at London’s Nightingale Hospital was “as tough a war zone”.

Army medic Jamie Jones, 41, retired from the forces in 2010 after 15 years and became a health adviser.

But when he was furloughed he helped build the 4,000-bed facility and then accepted an offer to do 12-hour shifts maintaining ventilators and other emergency gear in the critical resuscitation team.

He said: “Working at Nightingale is as tough as Camp Bastion or any of the other seven operational deployments and tours I’ve done – only this time the enemy is an incredibly evil and dangerous virus we still don’t understand.

“To see the scale of this place, how quickly patients can suddenly deteriorate, it’s genuinely frightening.

It’s still early days but we’re dealing with patients requiring advanced interventions every day.

“We’re seeing people in their 20s, 30s, 40s, all age groups.”

Jamie, dad to Thomas, 16 months, added: “This is nothing short of a war and we all have to do our bit.

“I just want to show the public how big this place is, that if they keep going to parties and to the beach, it will be full in no time.

“It’s industrial, with the endless rows of ICU beds in preparation for an influx everyone prays never happens.

“I thought I was a hardened soldier, but seeing the amazing nurses here dealing with the stress is humbling.”

While he says he doesn’t know exact figures, Jamie says the hospital is “getting busier by the day”.

The NHS will not say how many patients are at the hospital, built with the help of the military in nine days.

Leaked data showed that it treated just 19 patients over Easter.