FIELD SET FOR ITS GREATEST BATTLE
STADIUM DAYS AWAY FROM BEING WALES’ BIGGEST FIELD HOSPITAL:
THIS is the scene inside the iconic Principality Stadium as it undergoes a remarkable transformation into a 2,000-bed field hospital to help fight the Covid-19 pandemic.
The newly-named Ysbyty Calon y Ddraig, The Dragon’s Heart Hospital, will open to its first patients on Sunday, with 300 beds available for people suffering from coronavirus.
It’s an unprecedented project, with the hospital designed and operational in under two weeks – a process that would normally take two years.
The stadium turf, which normally plays host to the Wales national rugby team has been taken up, and soon up to 700 patients will actually be treated on the pitch itself.
Giant tents will be erected to control the temperature inside the iconic stadium bowl, with around 2,500 staff expected to be working here when at full capacity.
The initial beds are being installed in the 115 hospitality boxes in the stadium, with the first available in the coming days.
As well as the main floor of the stadium, raised platforms are currently being built that will house another 200 patients. Other huge spaces in the bowels of the stadium are also being used, including the home and away dressing rooms, which have already been turned into temporary offices.
Even the police cell deep in the stadium, normally used to hold people arrested during events, is being utilised.
More than 18,000 bed pans will need to be emptied every day, 20,000 porter visits will be required daily to different parts of the hospital, three-and-a-half tons of clinical waste will be removed off site and hundreds of thousands of litres of oxygen will be brought to the venue.
A mobile CT scanner is also being delivered, along with four X-ray machines and a mobile laboratory.
In two-weeks’ time, the complete 2,000-bed hospital will be fully operational after a mammoth effort involving 5,000 hours of planning and work by around 650 contractors and 30 members of the armed forces who have been helping build beds.
It is expected to be operational for around three months, depending on how the pandemic develops and progresses.
The hospital will be the second biggest in the UK, after the Nightingale Hospital in London which was also set up to deal with the pandemic.
The 2,500 staff being brought in will include 100 doctors, 500 nurses, plus volunteers, health care assistants, porters, catering staff and many who are returning to the medical profession from retirement.
Wing Commander David O’Reilly, clinical lead for the new hospital, said: “The response from colleagues and partners has been amazing.
“Building only actually started a couple of days ago and it was only the Sunday before we first met the consultants. It usually takes two years to design a hospital. I have never seen anything like this before. Nothing can prepare you for something like this.”
Len Richards, the health board’s chief executive, said reduced infection rates within the area meant beds will be also available to other health boards, and praised the the Welsh Rugby Union, the stadium’s owners, the council and his colleagues for readying the site at “breakneck speed”.
He said: “We commissioned this about 12 days ago. We’ve worked really well together. We’ll open up the beds as we need to.
“If, as we think now, we won’t need all of those beds for Cardiff and Vale we will offer them out, so they will be used.
“My sense is it will be a significant player and play a significant part in the health service going forward.”
Mr Richards admitted having “anxieties” about running the facility, but was confident there were enough resources, including personal protective equipment and oxygen tanks, to keep staff and patients safe.
He said the hospital would be available to the health board as long as the lockdown and lack of sporting fixtures continued.
Dr Jonathon Gray, who as director of transformation at the health board has helped oversee the hospital’s creation, expected it to be “extraordinarily busy” when it is fully operational and spoke of his pride at being part of the effort.
He said: “This is going to be an amazing facility, and somewhere I’d be proud to bring my family if I were unfortunate enough to need to do so. The degree of volunteering and commitment and people stepping outside of their roles day after day to make this happen is amazing. After this, I actually think nothing is too difficult to solve.”
He said there was no figure yet on the cost of the work, and while there was not a “blank cheque” available to the health board it was spending “whatever it takes to save lives”.
He said the neighbouring Cardiff Arms Park, home to Cardiff Blues rugby team, would house a staffing area for workers to eat, dress and shower.