Covid-19: London's NHS Nightingale 'ready to admit patients'

London's Nightingale Hospital is ready to admit patients as hospitals in the capital struggle, the NHS has said.

The Excel Centre site in east London has been "reactivated" amid a rise in the number of Covid-19 patients.

Other Nightingale hospital sites across England are also being readied, with the UK recording a record daily rise in coronavirus cases.

An NHS spokesman said hospitals in London remain under "significant pressure".

He said: "In anticipation of pressures rising from the spread of the new variant infection, NHS London were asked to ensure the London Nightingale was reactivated and ready to admit patients as needed, and that process is under way."

Several NHS hospitals in London and the south-east are now reporting they are under extreme pressure as a result of a surge in the number of people falling seriously ill with Covid-19.

An email to staff at the Royal London Hospital says they are operating in disaster medicine mode - warning they can no longer provide high-standard critical care.

Nightingale hospitals in Manchester, Bristol and Harrogate are in use currently for non-Covid patients, the spokesman added.

The Exeter site received its first Covid patients in November when it began accepting those transferred from the Royal Devon and Exeter NHS Foundation Trust, which was described as "very busy".

He said: "Covid inpatient numbers are rising sharply so the remaining Nightingales are being readied to admit patients once again should they be needed, in line with best clinical practice developed over the first and second waves of coronavirus."

Senior intensive care doctor Prof Hugh Montgomery warned those who fail to follow the rules on social distancing, hand washing and wearing a face covering "have blood on their hands".

NHS England medical director Stephen Powis has described the Nightingale hospitals as "our insurance policy, there as our last resort".

He told a Downing Street press conference on Wednesday: "We asked all the Nightingale hospitals a few weeks ago to be ready to take patients if that was required.

"Indeed, some of them are already doing that, in Manchester taking step-down patients, in Exeter managing Covid patients, and in other places managing diagnostics, for instance.

"Our first steps though, in managing the extra demands on the NHS, are to expand capacity within existing hospitals - that's the best way to use our staff."

London's Nightingale Hospital was opened on 3 April and placed on standby weeks later after fewer than 20 patients were treated there.