Two-week extension for Nightingale hospital as negotiations continue

The contract for Harrogate’s Nightingale hospital has been extended for two weeks to allow for talks between the NHS and the council to continue.

The NHS contract was due to expire last Friday, July 31, with no announcement made at the time about whether it would be extended or the field hospital would be decommissioned.

Now, Harrogate Borough Council has said it is continuing talks with the NHS over the future of the site. If the hospital moves out, Harrogate Convention Centre would be able to host events and conferences over the winter, in line with covid guidelines.

A council spokesman said:

“We continue our discussions with colleagues from the NHS about their future plans, and a two week extension has been granted to the current agreement to allow those discussions to continue. However, at this stage, nothing has been decided.”

The delay is likely to cause concern among businesses in the town. Andrew Manby, a director of events company Joe Manby Ltd, previously told the Stray Ferret the NHS needed to make a decision to enable local businesses to plan for the future.

Hospitality in the town, including hotels, restaurants and bars, is heavily reliant on people visiting the convention centre for trade and public events. As the rest of the country begins to reopen, Mr Manby said Harrogate could be left behind if the Nightingale continues to occupy the whole venue.

Inside of Harrogate's Nightingale Hospital

The convention centre owners and managers are still planning ahead for future events whilst the future of the Nightingale is uncertain

The convention centre team, meanwhile, have been preparing measures to enable events to go ahead safely as soon as they are possible. Additional space could be offered free of charge, one way systems introduced, and even cameras allowing organisers to measure crowd density around the halls.

Longer days and additional dates could also be offered to event organisers to allow more people to visit over longer periods, supporting social distancing.

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The two-week extension comes after the Prime Minister announced a £3 billion fund to support the seven Nightingale hospitals until the end of March. Since then, however, the one hosted at Birmingham NEC has been scaled back, allowing the venue to resume events from October with a smaller standby hospital in another part of the site.

The Harrogate Nightingale Hospital is yet to treat any coronavirus patients, but has been used as a facility for outpatient CT scans since early June. The NHS is not paying any rent to the council for use of the convention centre.

The Stray Ferret has previously reported the convention centre is under financial strain. The council is this week due to vote on a £1m investment which would pave the way for a £46.8 million renovation project.

Bishop Thornton company chosen for NHS contract

A Bishop Thornton firm has been accredited to work on NHS hospitals across the north of England.

Robinsons Facilities Services, which specialises in commercial heating, ventilation, air conditioning, plumbing and electrical repairs and maintenance, won a competitive tender to join the NHS North of England Commercial Procurement Collaborative (NOE CPC) framework.

It will now supply, repair and service plumbing and heating systems across hospitals including Harrogate, Doncaster, Newcastle and more. It follows the firm’s successful tender last summer to carry out repairs on heating, ventilation and air conditioning on premises owned and managed by Harrogate Borough Council.

Later in 2019, it was also chosen to carry out maintenance for the University of York. Robinsons Facilities Services director Katie Challis, pictured above, said:

“We actually tendered for this specific framework back in December, but the coronavirus pandemic delayed the review process, hence us only finding out now.

“To demonstrate our suitably we had to highlight our experience, skills, quality of work, social value and price. Being accepted on the NOE CPC is a massive boost for the businesses and builds on last year’s successes with Harrogate Borough Council and the University of York.”

Since launching seven years ago, Robinsons has expanded to cover routine and emergency maintenance and repairs to hundreds of commercial and public sites across Yorkshire, with a team of 17 staff.

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