Nightingale hospitals told to prepare for patients

NHS Nightingale hospitals in Manchester, Sunderland and Harrogate are being asked to get ready to take patients, following a continual rise in admissions.

More people are now in hospital with coronavirus than before restrictions were announced in March, according to the government’s advisers.

The government is imminently expected to announce new lockdown measures, which, although nationwide, are rumoured to hit northern cities hardest, with Liverpool, Manchester and Nottingham expected to see heavy restrictions placed upon their residents.

However, England's deputy chief medical officer said the rise in coronavirus cases was now being seen nationwide and was not solely a problem for northern England. Jonathan Van-Tam said the ‘marked pick-up’ in cases that the country was seeing would lead to more deaths and he warned that coronavirus was spreading from younger age groups into the over 60s who are more vulnerable.

The advisers say that hospitals have not yet reached capacity, but the NHS may have to use some of the temporary critical care Nightingale hospitals if demand continues to rise. Most of the Nightingales, set up as an insurance policy in case the NHS became overwhelmed, were never used.