Covid-19: Prince William opens Birmingham's Nightingale Hospital

The Duke of Cambridge has officially opened Birmingham's NHS Nightingale Hospital.

Set up inside the National Exhibition Centre (NEC), the site is intended to take coronavirus patients from 23 Midlands hospitals.

Prince William said it was a "wonderful example" of the "pulling together" going on up and down the UK during the coronavirus pandemic.

He spoke via video link to healthcare, military and civilian personnel.

The site became operational as planned on 10 April with a 500-bed capacity, which can be increased to 1,500, but is yet to take in any patients.

More than 400 civilian contractors, along with military personnel and about 500 clinical staff, have been involved in building the temporary field hospital.

It is thought about 300 people have already volunteered to staff the site, BBC Midlands Today health correspondent Michele Paduano said.

Prince William praised NHS workers' "selfless commitment" and said "hospitals are about the people and not the bricks".

"Let me start by reiterating all that has been said so far and paying tribute to the incredible work that NHS staff across the country have been doing to tackle the coronavirus pandemic," he said.

"Their selfless commitment has touched the hearts of the entire nation."

He added: "The Nightingale hospitals will rightly go down as landmarks in the history of the NHS.

"The NHS Nightingale Hospital Birmingham is a wonderful example of Britain pulling together."

Prince William thanked everyone involved in the building and setting up of the hospital, saying they should be "hugely proud" of what they have achieved as the site will provide "invaluable resources for hospitals from miles and miles around".

Helen Gyves, lead nurse for clinical environment, said the Duke of Cambridge spoke to staff involved in the build asking how it had all gone.

"It was lovely, he took quite a decent amount of time to chat to us all, had something really nice to say, asked us all about our families, which is quite emotional, I suppose - that we're all here and we feel like everything's revolving around here and our families are all at home, isolated," she said.

The hospital, which was built in eight days, will be run by University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Trust (UHB).

It has showering and eating facilities for patients and "good bed spaces" and equipment, considering they were using a warehouse, Ms Gyves said.

Trust chief executive Dr David Rosser said: "We need to think how else we use this facility to help us through the next couple of years."

Health Secretary Matt Hancock said the hospital would help create vital extra NHS capacity.

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