THE NEW NHS Nightingale Hospital at the NEC is set to receive its first patients on Sunday – as the region becomes a coronavirus hotspot.
The huge facility for people in the West Midlands region needing treatment for Covid-19 will open its doors just two weeks after it was announced, following the first such hospital at the Excel Centre in London’s Docklands.
The hospital based at the NEC will start with up to 500 beds equipped with the capacity to increase beds up to 2,000 if required.
It comes after a week of steep rises of both confirmed coronavirus cases and deaths in the West Midlands and wider Midlands region.
Government ministers and NHS officials now see the region as the next coronavirus hotspot outside London.
Work is under way to try to understand the particular reasons for the region’s spread of the virus.
Nick Page, of Gold Command at the West Midlands Combined Authority said of a spike in deaths in the region: “Some of the work we are doing is about understanding the density of population – so we have a lot of families in the West Midlands who are large family groups who perhaps live in smaller properties, maybe flats. That may be a factor.”
West Midlands region mayor Andy Street says hospitals are prepared for the peak of the Covid-19 crisis which nationally is expected over the next week to 10 days.
CEO of the NEC Group, Paul Thandi, said: “We have been working with our brilliant NHS and the MOD to plan, build and open a field hospital as quickly as possible, to help combat the life-threatening situation our country faces in dealing with COVID-19.
“We will now offer the necessary resource and assistance in adapting the NEC appropriately, ready for imminent use.
“With the full and ongoing support of Blackstone, our majority shareholder, we are confident we can play our part to assist our NHS and MOD in our country’s efforts to combat the threat to life COVID-19 represents.”
The NHS Nightingale Birmingham will draw nurses, doctors and other staff from across the health service, as well as a number of military medics who will also tend to patients. The majority will be NHS staff.
