LONDON (Reuters) – British health officials have reactivated emergency hospitals built at the onset of the pandemic to increase COVID-19 cases that put pressure on existing wards large, especially in London.
The UK has recorded more than 50,000 new daily cases of the virus in the last four days, partly driven by a much more contagious new version, and an increase in the number of deaths every day.
Physicians have warned that they struggle to cope, especially when so many colleagues are off sick or when they have to separate themselves, and paramedics and nurses have to deal to patients in ambulances due to lack of available beds.
An email told staff from the Royal London Hospital that he was now in “accident treatment”.
A spokesman for the National Health Service (NHS) said Nightingale hospital in London was ready to reopen if needed.
“In anticipation of pressures arising from the spread of the new variable disease, the NHS Department of London was asked to ensure that the Nightingale was reactivated and ready to admit patients if required,” she said. “That process has begun.”
The hospital, based in the Excel Exhibition Center in London’s Docklands and named after Victorian nursing pioneer Florence Nightingale, will be staffed by London-based therapists with additional support from the military and voluntary sector partners. it is needed, the spokesman said.
Nightingale Hospitals are temporary sites built with the help of the military in a matter of days in March and April when hospitals were first struggling to deal with the crowds into two COVID-19 patients.