Coronavirus: First Nightingale hospital in England reopens in Manchester for Covid-19 patients

The NHS Nightingale Hospital in Manchester will reopen in the next week as the city heads into a local lockdown.

A local NHS boss today announced the temporary hospital, set up in the Manchester Central Conference Centre, will be brought back into use before the end of next week. It will become the first one in England to reopen.

It had closed in June when the first wave of the UK’s outbreak burned out, but there are now fears that local hospitals will be inundated with Covid patients again.

The Nightingale will not be used to treat people seriously ill with coronavirus but instead opened to add capacity for ‘additional rehabilitation’.

The city is entering Tier Three lockdown rules from midnight on Friday after a week of wrangling between the Government and the mayor, Andy Burnham, because the city has one of the highest infection rates in England. 

The moves come as local lockdowns are looming across the country, with Nottinghamshire facing the toughest rules because of an outbreak in its main city.

Tier Two rules, which bring a ban on socialising indoors, are now in place in Slough and officials in Stoke-on-Trent are calling for them to be imposed there, too.

Boris Johnson has refused calls from scientists for a national lockdown, which his own scientific advisers believe should happen, and is sticking to the three-tier local system. 

One of SAGE’s advisers, Professor John Edmunds, yesterday warned the system’s inevitable conclusion will be ‘high levels’ of infection all over the country as tougher rules spring up in the wake of surging outbreaks, too late to stop them and too weak to shrink them. 

The NHS Nightingale for the North West was mothballed in June when the last coronavirus patient from the UK’s first wave was discharged. Local health bosses say it will reopen by the end of next week

In an announcement this morning, Professor Jane Eddleston, the boss of the Manchester University NHS Trust, confirmed the Nightingale would reopen.

‘We will be opening the Nightingale, we expect that to be towards the end of next week,’ she said.

‘The Nightingale will not be used as a critical care facility and neither was it in the first phase, it will be used as a facility for patients to have additional rehabilitation.’

The move in Manchester comes as hospitals in nearby Liverpool are reported to already be treating more Covid-19 patients than they were in the spring’s first wave. 

The medical director of the biggest NHS trust in the city said beds occupied by Covid-19 patients had already surpassed levels in April and that they were ‘continuing to rise’.

Dr Tristan Cope, of Liverpool University Hospitals NHS Trust, made the claim on Twitter today but did not offer any data to back it up.

There were 390 beds occupied by Covid-19 patients at the peak of the city’s crisis on April 13, official figures show. 

NHS England said today there were currently 398 virus patients being treated at the trust’s hospitals, which include the Royal Liverpool University Hospital, Aintree University Hospital and Broadgreen Hospital.   

However, the most recent published figures only go up to October 1, and on that date just 95 beds were occupied Covid-19 patients   

The disparities in the statistics will fuel an ongoing row over transparency around hospital data.

The Government and health professionals have used terrifying hospital statistics to justify putting cities under harsher lockdowns. But without up-to-date figures being regularly published, it has been difficult to fact check the claims.

Manchester mayor Andy Burnham and other local leaders have accused officials of ‘cherry picking’ figures to exaggerate the scale of the problem in the North West. 

The most recent official figures only go up to October 1, and show 95 Covid-19 patients were in the trust's hospitals, which include the Royal Liverpool University Hospital, Aintree University Hospital and Broadgreen Hospital. That's barely a quarter of the 390 beds filled by virus sufferers at the peak on April 13

The most recent official figures only go up to October 1, and show 95 Covid-19 patients were in the trust’s hospitals, which include the Royal Liverpool University Hospital, Aintree University Hospital and Broadgreen Hospital. That’s barely a quarter of the 390 beds filled by virus sufferers at the peak on April 13

More recent hospital admissions data paint a clearer picture of the crisis in Liverpool.

NHS figures that go up to October 11 show that, since the start of the month, there were 403 Covid-19 patients taken to Liverpool University Hospitals Trusts. That’s more than triple the amount admitted in the 11 days prior, when there were just 133.

NHS hospital in Bradford becomes latest to cancel operations amid spike in Covid-19 patients 

NHS hospitals in Bradford have become the latest to start cancelling operations after seeing a spike in admissions of Covid-19 patients.

Bradford Teaching Hospitals revealed in a statement it will suspend some non-urgent surgery and outpatient appointments for two weeks from next Tuesday.

It runs both the Bradford Royal Infirmary and St Luke’s Hospital, as well as four other hospitals, serving a population of around half a million people. 

There are currently 100 coronavirus patients at Bradford Royal Infirmary (BRI), and 30 requiring oxygen support — the highest number of any hospital in the North East and Yorkshire.

The trust said Covid-19 patients had reached levels seen in May, just after the peak of the first wave, and they had to take action to keep patients and staff safe. 

Hospitals in Liverpool, Birmingham, Nottingham, Plymouth, Swansea and Belfast have also begun cancelling operations amid a rise in Covid-19 admissions.

It comes despite a backlog of millions of people needing non-urgent treatment, after tens of thousands of operations were postponed to help the NHS prepare for a wave of Covid-19 patients. One hospital trust, Hull University Teaching Hospitals, told its patients it may be two years before they are treated. 

Writing on Twitter, Dr Cope said: ‘Sadly we are now treating more patients in hospital with Covid-19 @LivHospitals than we did in April at the peak of the first wave and numbers continue to rise.

‘So important that people in #liverpool and @LivCityRegion adhere to social distancing restrictions.

‘Treating so many Covid patients in addition to usual acute and emergency care of patients with non-Covid conditions puts a huge strain on @LivHospitals staff. Thank you to all our staff for their incredible hard work and dedication in dealing with this very difficult situation.

‘We can all help reduce that pressure by doing the right thing and taking some very simple measures: washing our hands frequently, keeping our distance from others from outside our household and wearing face coverings in indoor settings.’

The city region became the first area of the country to become subject to Tier 3 restrictions, which include the closure of bars and pubs which are not serving food, last week.

Liverpool has the third highest infection rate in the country according to the latest figures, although the numbers are dropping.

In the seven days up until October 17 there were 2,970 recorded new cases, meaning a rate of 596.3 cases per 100,000 people, down from 691.7 the week before.

Chief nurse of the hospitals trust Dianne Brown wrote on Twitter: ‘As Covid rates @LivHospitals exceed the number back in April, need to recognise the impact this is having on our staff.

‘Thank you to each and everyone of you, it is mentally, physically and emotionally exhausting – you are doing an amazing job.’

Last week, MailOnline revealed intensive care units at Liverpool’s biggest NHS trust were no busier than normal for this time of year, it emerged today.

Councillor Paul Brant sparked fears when he claimed the city’s critical-care units were already 95 per cent full and ‘filling up very fast’ amid a spike in Covid-19 cases.

But Liverpool University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust dismissed the claim, insisting that its units were only 80 per cent full with just 47 of 61 critical-care beds occupied.  The trust’s intensive care unit is normally 85 per cent full in October.  

It comes after hospital bed occupancy was used as a propaganda tool in the bad-tempered row over Covid restrictions in Manchester.

Downing Street has used terrifying statistics in an attempt to gain public support for forcing local leaders into accepting strict tier-three measures.

They claim the city’s hospitals will become ‘overwhelmed’ within a few weeks, and even the surge capacity will be used up.

But Manchester mayor Andy Burnham and other local leaders have challenged the Government’s use of data, accusing ministers of ‘cherry picking’ figures to exaggerate the scale of the problem in the North West.

NHS data reveals the units are normally 85 per cent occupied at this time of year. But at present they are only 80 per cent full, the hospital trust has said

NHS data reveals the units are normally 85 per cent occupied at this time of year. But at present they are only 80 per cent full, the hospital trust has said

They claim that, even though cases are increasing, current occupancy in critical-care units is not far above the norm for this time of year.

Even Professor Jane Eddleston, who leads the Government’s coronavirus response in Greater Manchester, has insisted that although the numbers are ‘stark’ the ‘system can cope’.

But the fact is there is simply not enough data to form an accurate picture. Intensive care occupancy figures are not regularly collected and the Government’s projections are murky at best.

And health officials in Manchester have refused to provide the relevant data, insisting they will not provide a ‘running commentary’ on bed occupancy.

And because younger people now form the bulk of new cases, there is also a longer time lag between infection and hospital admission. This means we are less likely to see the sudden spike in very sick patients that we saw back in the spring, which put hospitals under such strain.

Nationwide, for example, it took a month – from March 1 to April 1 – for hospital admissions to rise from zero to 3,500 a day. Between September 1 and October 1, in comparison, the number went from 100 to 500.