With the first one set up and now in full operation, the NHS Nightingale Hospital Birmingham is now ready and open to provide up to an originally 500 beds – which is, eventually expected to expand to a total 4,000.
Set to open at the National Exhibition Centre, on the outskirts of the city, the Nightingale will be taking patients for across the city and the wider West Midlands region in the fight against the fast-growing Covid-19 outbreak.
With the NHS Nightingale now up and running, it is designed to take coronavirus patients from 23 Midlands hospitals.
Dr David Rosser, chief executive of the University Birmingham NHS Trust, which is leading the hospital, said “We would prefer that these beds be needed as little as possible.
“So, as such, we urge the public to stay at home and help NHS staff to save lives.
“Patients will only be admitted when our existing hospitals start to reach full capacity and, presently, they are coping very well with the demands”.
Other temporary hospitals have already been set up in London, Manchester, Bristol and Harrogate.
Another NHS Nightingale Hospital is being built in the north east – in an industrial unit in Washington, Tyne and Wear.