Nightingale Hospital is remaining on standby

The Nightingale Hospital in Sunderland has said it is ready to step up if needed amid reports that coronavirus patients from London are being transferred to the North East.

Newcastle-upon-Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust confirmed that the facility, which was kitted out to care for Covid sufferers, is available and ready.

Equipped with 460 ventilated beds, NHS Nightingale Hospital North East is based on the International Automotive Manufacturing Park (IAMP) – just a short distance from Nissan's plant.

It opened on May 5 last year, along with Nightingale Hospitals in Manchester, Bristol, Harrogate and Birmingham.

The NHS Nightingale Hospital North East was intended as an overflow facility in the event of the number of patients with Covid-19 becoming too high for the region’s hospitals to treat.

As the number of hospital admissions continue to rise during the coronavirus pandemic, it has been reported by the Guardian that overstretched hospitals in London are transferring Covid-19 patients to intensive care units (ICU) in Newcastle.

The Guardian and the BBC have reported that NHS England has told hospitals in the north of England and the Midlands, among other areas, to open up hundreds of extra ICU beds to take patients from London, the south-east and east.

Meanwhile, almost 300 new coronavirus cases have been confirmed in Sunderland.

And another four people have died in the city’s NHS trust after testing positive for the virus.