Exeter’s Nightingale one of the few in use

THE NHS Nightingale hospital in Exeter received its first coronavirus patients in November – but there are concerns that many others across the country are lying idle.

The 116-bed hospital, built on the site of a former retail site in Exeter, was set up to provide extra capacity to support existing NHS services across the South West.

Last month, it began accepting patients with Covid-19 who had been transferred from the Royal Devon and Exeter NHS Foundation Trust, which was described as “very busy”.

However, London’s Nightingale hospital has seen some equipment removed from the site, even though NHS England has insisted it remains ready for use.

England’s hospitals are currently seeing more Covid-19 patients than at the first-wave peak of the virus in April.

NHS England sent a letter to trusts on December 23 asking them to plan for the use of additional facilities such as the Nightingale hospitals amid rising numbers of patients with the virus.

It is understood some equipment which was initially at the ExCel centre site in London is no longer there. Beds and ventilators have been removed, the Daily Telegraph reported.

A spokesperson for the NHS said the London Nightingale will be available to support the capital’s hospitals, if needed.

“In the meantime, it is vital that Londoners do everything possible to reduce transmission and cut the number of new infections which otherwise inevitably result in more avoidable deaths,” she said.

Concerns have been raised around the already-stretched health service’s ability to staff Nightingale facilities.