Coronavirus ‘Nightingale’ hospital to be built in Harrogate

Harrogate Convention Centre will join sites in Bristol, Manchester, Birmingham and London as home to one of the new facilities.

The first NHS Nightingale hospital, at London’s Excel centre, was officially opened today (Friday 3 April).

The hospital in Harrogate will serve the wider region as part of a nationwide effort to respond to the greatest global health emergency in more than a century.

NHS Hospitals across the country have already freed up more than 33,000 beds, the equivalent of 50 new hospitals, and a ground-breaking 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’s 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.

Sir Simon Stevens, NHS chief executive, said: “It’s nothing short of extraordinary that this new hospital in London has been established from scratch in less than a fortnight.

“The NHS, working with the military, has done in a matter of days what usually takes years.

“Now we are gearing up to repeat that feat at another four sites across the country to add to the surge capacity in current NHS hospitals.

“We’re giving the go ahead to these additional sites, hoping they may not be needing but preparing in case they are. But that will partly depend on continuing public support for measures to reduce growth in the infection rate by staying at home to save lives.”

Dr Allan McGlellan, medical director of the NHS Nightingale, said: “I’m so proud to be a part of this extraordinary achievement and my team and I are ready to care for people who need us.

“The NHS faces the greatest challenge in its history but by setting up this new site we can work with the hardest hit part of the country, to support staff in the capital’s other hospitals and make sure people who need intensive care can get it.