Coronavirus: NHS Nightingale hospital to stop admitting patients this week, leaked email reveals

London’s field hospital has struggled to take patients from the capital’s intensive care units due to a lack of staff

London’s Nightingale Hospital is to stop taking patients this week, according to a leaked email to staff from its chief executive.

In the message sent this morning, Professor Charles Knight said: “It is likely that in the coming days we will not need to be admitting patients to the London Nightingale, especially if Covid-19 in the capital continues to come under control.

“As a result, after the last of our first group of patients leaves, the hospital will be placed on standby, ready to resume operations as and when needed in the weeks and, potentially, months to come.”

His comments come after The Independent reported on Friday that the hospital, built in the former ExCel conference centre, had taken no new patients in the past week and had just 19 patients on Friday. More have been discharged since.

Similar field hospitals in Birmingham, Manchester and Harrogate are also not currently treating patients.

Downing Street confirmed that the hospital was being put “on standby”, while others in Manchester, Birmingham, Bristol and Harrogate will remain open. Hospitals in Sunderland and Exeter are due to open shortly.

Boris Johnson’s official spokesperson said: “It is not likely that in the coming days we will need to be admitting patients to London Nightingale while coronavirus in the capital remains under control. That’s obviously a very positive thing and we are grateful to everybody in London for following the government’s advice to protect the NHS.

“The Nightingale will effectively be placed on standby. It will be ready to receive patients should that be required, but we are not anticipating that will be the case.”

The spokesperson said it was “absolutely not” the case that the Nightingale hospitals had been a waste of money, adding: “We view the fact that the Nightingales have not had to be used in a significant way as something that is positive.”

In his message to staff, Professor Knight said the decision to stop taking patients did not mean the role of the field hospital was over.

He said: “We must be ready for the possibility that the number of Covid-19 cases start to rise, if and when the government eases social distancing rules. That is why the London Nightingale, including our staff and volunteers, will stand ready should we again be needed. Work is also under way to consider how the Nightingale’s role may further adapt as the NHS seeks to resume activity that had to be paused in the first phase of our response to the pandemic.

“As the prime minister has said, we are now moving past the first peak of coronavirus cases, and the NHS is therefore moving into the second phase of its response to Covid-19.”

Last month, The Independent revealed the Nightingale had struggled to take more patients from stretched intensive care units in London because of a lack of enough staff to care for patients.

Hospitals were told they would need to release staff from their own units to care for patients transferred to the Nightingale. The field hospital, which was built in just nine days, was designed to care for up to 4,000 patients who may need critical care and ventilators.

But due to limits on the services the hospital could provide, the sickest Covid-19 patients had to stay in overstretched London hospitals.

The Chartered Society of Physiotherapy has warned against using the Nightingale hospitals for rehab and recovery because of concerns they are the wrong environment for patients.

Professor Knight told staff he was “proud of the culture we have developed among clinicians and other staff brought together from across the NHS in London and beyond to mobilise this new type of hospital”.

He said: “A special thanks to the board of Barts Health NHS Trust who agreed to host our new hospital built in less than two weeks only five weeks ago. It has been an incredibly humbling experience to see so many people from so many disciplines unite for this mission. It is a privilege to be part of this Nightingale story.

“We are proud of you, and you should be proud of yourselves. Thanks to the determination and sacrifice of Londoners in following the expert advice to stay home and save lives we have fortunately not needed to expand the Nightingale’s capacity beyond the first ward.”