Kentish Express Ashford & District
‘We’re lucky Nightingale unit hasn’t had to open’
Alternative uses for Ashford’s Nightingale unit being set up to deal with Covid patients are being explored as construction reaches its conclusion.
Bosses at Kent and Medway Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) say the ‘surge hub’ at the William Harvey Hospital is almost finished but they do not expect to need it.
In December, it was announced the hospital would be getting the hub, with enough space for 100 patients, and it was built on the site’s main car park.
The intention was that it would help to cope with an expected rise in Covid patients in the face of the emerging Omicron variant.
However, during a meeting of the CCG’s governing body last Thursday, questions were asked about whether the hub – one of eight across the country – will be required after all.
Caroline Selkirk, the CCG’s executive director of health improvement, told members the structure was almost ready for use, adding: “We are lucky that we haven’t had to open it and there was never a plan to open it unless we got to the stage where it was absolutely necessary.”
She also added how the CCG recognised the construction had caused some issues with parking at the hospital.
Questions were also raised over whether the building could be used for something else now the concern over the Omicron variant has settled down.
“Certainly we are having those conversations,” she said.
“It is important to remember it is a temporary structure. I know it’s big, but it is a temporary structure.
“It is only licensed to be used in emergency circumstances, it is not a standard building that we can use all the time.
“So we do need to be mindful that it was licensed to be used in a particular set of circumstances and therefore you cannot just decide to use it for some other thing which is not related to an emergency.”
William Harvey staff are currently leaving their cars at the Julie Rose Stadium due to a lack of parking spaces at the hospital.
See letters on pages 20-21.