Hundreds of cancer operations cancelled as overrun London hospitals asked to send staff to Nightingale

Exclusive: ‘We need to be honest with the public and stop pretending this isn’t happening’

Hundreds of cancer operations face being cancelled across London (Getty Images)

Hundreds of cancer operations are being cancelled across London as the capital is inundated with Covid patients – but the Nightingale hospital set up to help take the strain still cannot open because staff have not been recruited.

Mayor Sadiq Khan declared a major incident – previously used for disasters such as the Grenfell Tower blaze – on Friday, warning that the city’s hospitals would soon run out of beds as the number of people infected reached one in 30 in some areas.

Across London there are now more than 7,200 Covid patients, almost half of all the capital’s beds, while in England as a whole there are more than 29,200 Covid patients in hospitals.

More than 68,000 infections were diagnosed in the UK on Friday with a further 1,325 deaths reported in the last 24 hours. This is the highest single day death toll since the pandemic started.

An urgent appeal has gone out for nurses and doctors across London to work at the Nightingale in east London’s Excel Centre, which will take recovering patients who are no longer testing positive for Covid – though the city’s hospitals themselves have been pleading with doctors and nurses to take on extra shifts already to help short staffed wards.

According to a leaked NHS England cancer resilience plan, written on Thursday, the capital needs to treat more than 500 cancer patients a week to stay on top of demand, but most hospital “green sites”, which are meant to be kept free of Covid-19, were described as being “compromised”.

Only 122 cancer cases were treated in the city’s NHS hospitals this week, with another 101 in private hospitals. This left a shortfall of 277 cancer patients whose operations were delayed.

The NHS England report said there were 3,840 cancer patients already waiting beyond the target of 62 days for their first cancer treatment across the capital.  

These patients are classed as “priority two” patients meaning they must be treated within four weeks or there is a risk to their life or the loss of a limb.

One senior NHS trust source told The Independent: “My concern is that this becomes death by default. Nobody is talking about it or being honest and saying what we can do and are we happy with that loss of life. I’m not clear where the ethical considerations are being discussed.

“We need to be honest with the public and stop pretending this isn’t happening.”

Across London hospitals are being forced to open up more and more beds for seriously ill patients with staff shortages a major concern as the capital is gripped by a worse outbreak than in the first wave.

In a message to staff at King’s College Hospital on Friday staff were told there were now almost 700 Covid patients across the trust’s two hospitals.

Adam Creeggan, director of performance, said: “It seems clear from the data that greater social mixing at Christmas has generated a second peak in admissions at [King’s College Hospital], and sustained admissions at near peak levels at [Princess Royal University Hospital].”  

At the Royal Free Hospital, where 46 per cent of beds are Covid patients, doctors have received pleas for extra staff with the intensive care unit there said to be 50 staff short on a shift.

In a message to staff on Friday Kate Slemeck, chief executive, said: “Our ITU bed base has increased from 34 beds to now 86 beds. The pressure on our staff remains critical and the need for help remains. No ITU skills are required, just a willingness to help your colleagues. Non-clinical staff will not be asked to do clinical work.”

At the North Middlesex Hospital more than half (54 per cent) of beds are now occupied by Covid-19 patients with a total of 286 patients on Friday. Some have been transferred to the Royal Free and the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital.

Whipps Cross Hospital, near Walthamstow, was said to be near “breaking point” by the local council with 57 per cent of beds filled with Covid patients on Friday.

The London Ambulance Service has also been hit by long delays with hundreds of calls waiting hours for a response. The Health Service Journal reported some callers to NHS 111 could face a wait of 30 hours for a hospital bed.  

The Nightingale Hospital has been rebuilt after being dismantled last year with NHS England wanting to open it up as a step-down facility for non-Covid patients ready to go home. It will have an initial 64 beds but this could be expanded.

But The Independent has seen an urgent appeal from NHS England’s London regional team to find the nurses and doctors it needs to reopen.

In a message to hospital leaders across London it said: “We need systems to support with staffing to enable the Nightingale in the Excel Centre to open shortly, if required.

“Emerging data on bed occupancy indicates there may be a shortfall in general and acute beds across London. London region is looking to reactivate the NHS Nightingale Hospital London, at the Excel Centre, as a potential mitigation for the general and acute bed shortfall in both the immediate and medium term.”

Each area of London has been asked to identify at least 23 nurses who could work at the hospital. Similar requests for GPs to help out have also been sent.

One NHS insider said: “It’s a mad scrabble at the eleventh hour.”

Another NHS trust source added: “I think the nurses will all be working looking after the growing number of Covid patients. Every decision they have made about the London Nightingale has been wrong – every single one.”

Nicki Credland, chair of the British Association of Critical Care Nurses told The Independent: “I can’t decide if they never expected to get to this position or whether they are just inept. The Nightingales have been sold to the public as hospitals, they aren’t. They are warehouses with beds. They are not the right environment for rehab and step-down care.”

Vin Diwakar, medical director for the NHS in London said: “Our staff are working round the clock opening hundreds of beds including the London Nightingale and some surgery is being postponed based on clinical need to ensure Londoners continue to receive very urgent cancer surgery, making best use of existing NHS facilities and independent sector sites.

“On behalf of our NHS staff, I say to Londoners: We are depending on you. Stay at home, do everything possible to reduce the transmission of the virus, and help us save lives.” ​