Coronavirus: Pictures of NHS Nightingale hospital show scale of expected emergency
The ExCel centre in London, with the capacity to treat 4,000 patients, is being聽set up with the help of the military.
Saturday 28 March 2020 14:44, UK
New pictures have been released from inside an enormous temporary hospital being built in London to fight coronavirus.
Rows upon rows of cubicles hastily being erected at the ExCel centre in the capital's Docklands reveal the expected scale of the explosion in numbers of COVID-19 patients.
Efforts are being ramped up to ensure the NHS Nightingale Hospital can open next week.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock, who on Friday confirmed he had tested positive for the virus, had announced the procurement of the ExCel centre, which is expected to be able to hold 4,000 patients.
The site, which usually hosts spectacles and conferences, is being converted with the help of soldiers and trade contractors.
Initially 500 beds equipped with ventilators and oxygen will be used to treat the seriously ill, and their numbers are expected to swell in the city ahead of the rest of the nation.
NHS chief executive Sir Simon Stevens said: "Across England, we have reconfigured hospital services, so that 33,000 hospital beds are available to treat further coronavirus patients."
He has confirmed Birmingham's National Exhibition Centre and Manchester's Central Convention Centre are set to be converted into temporary hospitals too.
Sites are also expected to be created in Cardiff and Scotland.
The task of boosting critical care capacity has been under way since the health service declared an emergency at the end of January.
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Before the scale of the crisis became clear, the UK was believed to have had one of the lowest proportions of intensive care units in Europe.
The National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham will add an initial 500 beds, with the potential to grow to 2,000 if necessary.
While the facility in Manchester will add 500 more, with the capacity to expand to 1,000 - and Cardiff's Principality Stadium will provide up to 2,000 more.
Efforts are under way to source the doctors, nurses and non-clinical workers to staff the huge units.