What happened to the Nightingale hospitals??

[3littlewords]

So we spent millions creating these Nightingale hospitals earlier in the year to take the pressure off our existing hospitals and now when we need them the most they are being dismantled? What was the point? Where they ever used?
I understand there isnt the staff available to run them but surely we knew this before wasting money on building them

The one in Glasgow is being used for clinical appointments and suchlike.

Sensible people who worked in the NHS knew that there would be nobody to staff them.

The Exeter one is in use currently.

Our local one (albeit not a nightingale, because I'm in wales) is being used as a Covid recovery hospital. But it's only recently opened, most of those that opened in the first wave were closed 🤷‍♀️

It is a bit like giving millions of £ to friends/ family to provide PPE rather than ordering it from experts who have been supplying the NHS for decades.
Or awarding test and trace contracts to your cronies who haven't a clue, rather than giving extra funding to the very experienced local public health departments that already exist in every borough.
Oh wait...

You'd think wouldn't you op. I asked right at the beginning where the staff would come from. Sounds like some are operational and some are just landmarks.

Like many of the government ideas it wasn’t a great one. They were designed for patients on ventilators and are not suitable for CPAP which is the current preferred treatment. Apparently it was not predictable that to treat patients with an illness which primarily attacks the lungs you may need an oxygen supply.

Just think if that money had been given to schools instead what a different position we would be in now

The London one has not been dismantled either (BBC ran an article about it yesterday)

Problems with staffing remain, so there might need to be new thinking of who is put there (less serious cases, and those awaiting discharge perhaps?)

Still can't magic up non-existent staff, but as more NHS staff are vaccinated it might be possible to redeploy enough if those patients who can be safely nursed with the biggest staff ratios and have least call on specialist departments are the ones moved offsite.

It's got to be better than corridors or hours in an ambulance, both of which are already happening.

GIVE MONEY TO SCHOOLS?!
what is this madness?
Where would it all end?

I suspect they will be used to give vaccines to folks when the time comes.

They were designed for patients on ventilators and are not suitable for CPAP which is the current preferred treatment

At the time they were first built, ventilation was the prime treatment.

There was no crystal ball that a different means of delivering the oxygen would be needed.

(Ventilated patients of course need oxygen just as much)

The vaccination centres being used for the public are generally marquee arrangements with excellent ventilation. They have to be, because patients need to wait to be observed for adverse reactions. I don't know how well ventilated the nightingales are.
I am just watching GMB and feeling so frustrated that so many front line nhs staff haven't yet been offered a vaccine.

Could they be staffed by army medics in emergency?

@EdwardCullensBiteOnTheSide

Could they be staffed by army medics in emergency?

If there were anywhere near enough, then yes.

Defence Medical Services have been slashed in size, and for deployment is very dependent on reservists, who cannot currently be released from their NHS roles.

Outdoor testing centres are generally fully staffed and pretty much deserted. They would be ideal vaccination centres for anyone who could travel.

You do realise hospitals barely have the staff to keep their own ICU units functioning never mind running separate units. It’s like a school being told to have twice as many classes, running at the same time, with the same amount of teachers

Intensive care staff have families, partners and children...every few days someone is having to call in because Katie has a temperature of Tom has a cough. Other staff members are trying their best to pitch in.

At our local hospital they have been issued self testing kits to be done twice a week. The instructions tell Dr’s not to test themselves before night or weekend shifts!!! So basically if you’re due on a night or weekend shift and not symptomatic delay taking your test because we don’t want to know if you have it- it’s too much hassle to sort cover out

I was honestly gobsmacked

Presumably they thought less staff would be required for sedated, vented, catheterised patients who had a small chance of recovery anyway (so any vent was better than no vent).

That seemed to be the thinking anyway.

I got the impression they were designed as a last case scenario, to avoid patients dying in hospital car parks. To be fair, quite a few other countries made similar arrangements.

I have many friends and family working in front line nhs. They are absolutely on their knees, leave cancelled, living on ready meals, having to train and supervise inexperienced staff that have never worked in clinical areas before. My niece is a final year dental student and has been dragged into an acute ward to help with nursing care. Another family member is in his first registrar post, working in ITU, supervising 2 newly qualified doctors, one of whom is agency and barely speaks any English. He is so stressed and exhausted I am worried about him. Only one of the frontline staff I know personally has been vaccinated, and that person works in Scotland.

My point being that there are absolutely no staff to work in nightingale hospitals.

They were designed as waiting rooms for the morgue, as the survival rate and treatment has improved, they are not of much use.

Garden Bridge?
Zipwire?
BUS?
You expected better?