London’s Nightingale hospital at the ExCeL centre reopens as ‘rehab unit’

The Nightingale, at the ExCeL centre in Docklands, opened on April 3 but closed a month later after treating 57 patients
REUTERS
Ross Lydall @RossLydall12 January 2021

London’s Nightingale field hospital has begun treating patients again after reopening to help ease the demands of the third wave of the pandemic on the capital’s main hospitals.

It will treat recovering Covid patients and those recuperating from other conditions, operating as a “community rehab unit” rather than a makeshift intensive care unit as before. 

The Nightingale, at the ExCeL centre in Docklands, opened on April 3 but closed a month later after treating 57 patients, around a third whom died. 

It was recommissioned last month and took two weeks to make ready for reopening last night on a phased basis. It will have two wards of 32 beds. 

Sir David Sloman, regional director for the NHS in London, said: “Unfortunately given very high levels of infection driving very high hospital admissions we do need to reopen the Nightingale once more.”

“This time our brilliant NHS staff will ensure patients receive the best possible rehabilitation and step-down care, freeing up beds for sicker patients in our acute hospitals.”

A total of seven Nightingales were opened across the country during the first peak. The total cost of setting up and running the hospitals and keeping them on standby between waves is expected to reach £532m, MPs were told this week.

Patients are currently being treated in the Nightingales in Manchester and Exeter, with the Bristol and Harrogate sites supporting elective hospital services.  

The ExCeL centre is also hosting a mass vaccination centre, which offered its first jabs to Londoners yesterday.

The London Nightingale is being run by North East London NHS Foundation Trust.

Professor Oliver Shanley, chief executive of NELFT, said: “We are pleased to be hosting NHS Nightingale Hospital London as part of the London wide response to the current pressures on the NHS. Thank you to all our colleagues from across London who have worked tirelessly to enable us to support patients by opening as a community rehabilitation unit.”  

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