NHS works with independent hospitals to boost coronavirus treatment
Nearly 20,000 fully qualified staff will be joining the NHS response to the pandemic, helping manage the expected surge in cases.
The extra resources will not only be available to treat coronavirus patients, but will also help the NHS deliver other urgent operations and cancer treatments.
The deal – the first of its kind ever – includes the provision of 8,000 hospital beds across England, nearly 1,200 more ventilators, more than 10,000 nurses, more than 700 doctors and more than 8,000 other clinical staff.
NHS chief executive Sir Simon Stevens said: “We’re dealing with an unprecedented global health threat and are taking immediate and exceptional action to gear up. The NHS is doing everything in its power to expand treatment capacity, and is working with partners right across the country to do so. But it is absolutely vital that this is matched by successful and comprehensive adoption of the public measures needed to cut the spread of the virus. We all have to play our part to help offset the enormous pressure that our nurses, doctors and other specialists will otherwise face.”
David Hare, Chief Executive of the Independent Healthcare Providers Network, said: “Independent hospitals are boosting emergency capacity to put at the disposal of the NHS over these coming weeks. We have worked hand-in-hand with the NHS for decades and will do whatever it takes to support the NHS in responding to this pandemic.
This significant additional capacity across the country will be a major boost to the NHS’s efforts to treat those patients that need hospital care over the coming period and the independent sector stands ready to maintain that support for as long as needed.
