New NHS Nightingale Hospital for Yorkshire and The Humber
It has been confirmed today that the NHS Nightingale Hospital Yorkshire and the Humber will form a vital part of the NHS’s surge capacity in the response to the Coronavirus pandemic.
Based at the Harrogate Convention Centre, the new, temporary hospital will initially provide some 500 beds equipped with ventilators and oxygen.
Redevelopment work is already well underway to create and equip the centre and will be completed within weeks. Once fully operational it will provide care for thousands of patients who have tested positive for COVID-19 from across the region.
It has been set up through a collaboration of NHS hospital trusts, Harrogate Borough Council, the armed forces and NHS England and NHS Improvement.
The hospital will have a management team, drawn from NHS leaders from across the region, and will be hosted by The Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust.
NHS Nightingale Hospital Yorkshire and the Humber is part of a comprehensive range of measures being put in place to respond to the pandemic in secondary, primary and social care, across the public and private sector.
Dewsbury MP Mark Eastwood welcomed the announcement. He said:
Setting up the hospital in such a short time is an extraordinary achievement. The new hospital will also help create more critical care capacity in our existing facilities.
I pay tribute to all the staff at our local NHS trusts who have made this happen alongside their key partners in both national and local Government, our fantastic armed forces, NHS England and NHS Improvement." Dewsbury MP Mark Eastwood
The Yorkshire and the Humber facility was confirmed as part of the third wave of national NHS Nightingale sites, along with the new NHS Nightingale Hospital being built in Bristol.
These two new facilities join the three existing NHS Nightingale Hospitals, based in London, Manchester and Birmingham.
The announcement comes as the first NHS Nightingale hospital, at London's Excel Centre, will be officially opened today Friday.
New hospitals will also open in Birmingham and Manchester, offering up to 3,000 beds between them if they are needed as the coronavirus pandemic continues.
NHS England said hospitals across the country had already freed up more than 33,000 beds, and a deal has been struck with the independent hospital sector to put up to 8,000 extra beds - as well as staff and equipment -at the NHS' disposal.
These measures mean that capacity still exists in hospitals to deal with coronavirus, with the Nightingales standing ready if local services need them beyond that.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock, who has recovered from COVID-19 and came out of self-isolation on Thursday, said the government was "taking exceptional measures to ensure the NHS has whatever it needs to tackle this virus".
"The NHS and the military have achieved something extraordinary in setting up NHS Nightingale, London in only a matter of days. It is testament to their hard work and dedication that an additional four hospitals will be rolled out across the nation.
We must all play our part to assist our heroes on the health and social care frontline and I urge everyone to stay at home, protect the NHS and save lives." Health Secretary Matt Hancock
Each of these new services will initially have up to 500 beds, potentially offering as many as 3,000 more between them if cases escalate.
