The NHS Nightingale Hospital North East was one of the temporary

NHS Nightingale Hospitals COVID-19 hospitals in the United Kingdom are temporary hospitals set up in the United Kingdom and overseas territories as part of the response to the COVID-19 pandemic. They principally include the seven NHS England Nightingale Hospitals, NH ...

set up by NHS England to help to deal with the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

. It was constructed inside the

Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Advanced Manufacturing The International Advanced Manufacturing Park is a British business park located in the City of Sunderland, Tyne and Wear. The site is located next to Nissan Motor Manufacturing UK, the UK's second largest car manufacturing site. It is a developme ...

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...

Background

To add extra critical care capacity during the COVID-19 epidemic in England, and to treat those with

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...

, plans were made to create further temporary hospital spaces for those in need of treatment and care. They have been named "Nightingale Hospitals", after

Florence Nightingale Florence Nightingale (; 12 May 1820 – 13 August 1910) was an English Reform movement, social reformer, statistician and the founder of modern nursing. Nightingale came to prominence while serving as a manager and trainer of nurses during t ...

who came to prominence for nursing soldiers during the

Crimean War The Crimean War, , was fought from October 1853 to February 1856 between Russia and an ultimately victorious alliance of the Ottoman Empire, France, the United Kingdom and Piedmont-Sardinia. Geopolitical causes of the war included the de ...

and is regarded as the founder of modern

nursing Nursing is a profession within the health care sector focused on the care of individuals, families, and communities so they may attain, maintain, or recover optimal health and quality of life. Nurses may be differentiated from other health ...

. On 12 October, 2020 amidst a rise in cases in Northern England, the hospital was placed on standby.

Details

The site was converted to be a hospital at the cost of £23.5 million. The site had 460 beds available with the building divided into 16 wards. It was operated by

Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust is one of the Shelford Group of University Teaching Hospitals and an NHS Foundation Trust. It provides acute medical services in Newcastle upon Tyne, England, at Royal Victoria Infirmary and Fre ...

. The hospital has been prepared by the British Armed forces working with the local NHS Trusts. County Durham MP Richard Holden said, when announcing the hospital on 10 April, that it was expected to be open for patients in the following two weeks. The hospital was officially opened on 5 May 2020, in a virtual ceremony, by

Matt Hancock Matthew John David Hancock (born 2 October 1978) is a British politician who served as Minister for the Cabinet Office and Paymaster General from 2015 to 2016, Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport from January to July 201 ...

(

Secretary of State for Health The secretary of state for health and social care, also referred to as the health secretary, is a secretary of state in the Government of the United Kingdom, responsible for the work of the Department of Health and Social Care. The incumbent ...

). The opening ceremony also featured television celebrities

Ant and Dec Ant & Dec are a British television presenting duo, consisting of Anthony McPartlin (born 18 November 1975) and Declan Donnelly (born 25 September 1975), from Newcastle upon Tyne, England. Formed after their meeting as child actors on CBBC's dr ...

, football pundit

Alan Shearer Alan Shearer CBE DL (born 13 August 1970) is an English football pundit and retired football player and manager who played as a striker. Widely regarded as one of the best strikers of his generation and one of the greatest players in Premie ...

and cricketer Ben Stokes. It was not a conventional walk-in hospital - only patients who are already inpatients in other hospitals in the region and meet certain criteria were to be admitted. They would have stayed at the hospital until they were assessed as being ready to move back to a local hospital. The hospital was kept on standby to treat Covid patients but did not admit a single patient. On 12 October 2020 amidst a rise in cases in Northern England, the hospital was placed on readiness to receive patients, but again did not. In January 2021 NHS England admitted that it would not be admitting any patients into the specially created hospital. Later the same month it was announced that the hospital was to become instead a mass vaccination centre. On 31 March 2022 the hospital was closed for the final time.

Transportation

On 25 January 2021,

Go North East Go North East operates both local and regional bus services in County Durham, Cumbria, Northumberland, North Yorkshire and Tyne and Wear, England. It was previously known as the Northern General Transport Company and Go-Ahead Northern. The comp ...

introduced a bus route branded ConnectorShuttle which operated between Concord bus station and the Nightingale Hospital. The service connected with bus route 56 at the bus station.

References

External links

NHS Nightingale North East
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nightingale Hospital North East