Investigation launched into Harrogate Nightingale hospital

An investigation is to be held into what lessons can be learned from Harrogate’s Nightingale hospital.

West Yorkshire Joint Health Scrutiny Committee will carry out the investigation, which it is hoped will provide evidence for any future public inquiry into covid.

Cllr Jim Clark, a Conservative who represents North Yorkshire on the panel, proposed the investigation and said it was “important to learn lessons” from the Nightingale.

The committee will look into how the hospital would have been staffed and what services would have been affected if it had been needed.

Councillors agreed to start the investigation at the next meeting of the health scrutiny committee on June 22. NHS officials will be called to give evidence to the panel.

The Harrogate Nightingale, which cost £27 million to set up and served the entire Yorkshire and Humber region, did not treat a single covid patient.

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However, it has been used to provide CT scans to non-covid patients.

Cllr Clark, who had previously called for a public inquiry into the hospital, said an investigation should be carried out as soon as possible.

He said:

“We need to look at what lessons can be learned from having had the Nightingale. 

“We have not had to use it, but I think we need to know how we would have staffed it and what capacity it would have been able to provide. Whether the staff would have come from other hospitals and what affect that would have had on the services within the rest of Yorkshire.

“There are a number of questions that need asking.”

NHS England confirmed earlier this month that the Nightingale will close and return to being a convention centre after this month.

The NHS has been paying utility bills of between £125,000 and £160,000 per month to Harrogate Borough Council.

Lord Newby, the Liberal Democrat leader in the House of Lords, who lives in Ripon, has described the Nightingale as a “costly PR stunt” and said it should have been closed “months ago”.

One more covid death confirmed at Harrogate hospital

Another patient who had tested positive for coronavirus has died at Harrogate District Hospital, according to today’s figures from NHS England.

The death, which was registered yesterday, brings the total number of deaths at the hospital to 167 since the start of the pandemic.

Meanwhile, seven new cases of covid have been confirmed in the Harrogate district today by Public Health England.

The total number of confirmed cases in the district since the start of the outbreak now stands at 7,391.

The Harrogate district seven-day covid rate has fallen to 42 per 100,000 people. This is lower than the rate for England which is 60,

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NHS confirms Harrogate Nightingale to close

The NHS has confirmed that the Harrogate Nightingale hospital is to return to being a convention centre.

NHS England said in a statement today all seven Nightingales “will transition back to local NHS services” from next month.

It added the Harrogate site would continue to provide diagnostic testing “for as long it takes to return the building to it previous purpose”.

So it is not clear precisely when the building will revert to its status as Harrogate Convention Centre and begin hosting events again.

The hospital has not treated a single covid patient but has provided CT scans to non-covid patients.

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An NHS spokesperson said:

“Since the very early days of the pandemic the Nightingale hospitals have been on hand as the ultimate insurance policy in case existing hospital capacity was overwhelmed but, as we have learned more about coronavirus, and how to successfully treat covid, existing hospitals have adapted to significantly surge critical care capacity and even in the winter wave – which saw more than 100,000 patients with the virus admitted in a single month – there were beds available across the country.

“Thank you to the many NHS staff and partners who worked so hard to set the Nightingales up so swiftly and of course the public who followed the guidance on controlling the spread of the virus and helped to prevent hospitals being overwhelmed.”

Two more covid deaths at Harrogate District Hospital

Two more patients who tested positive for covid have died at Harrogate District Hospital.

According to NHS England figures, the deaths occurred on Friday and on February 5.

It takes the death toll at the hospital to 155.

Another 17 coronavirus cases have been confirmed in the Harrogate district today.

According to Public Health England figures, it takes the total case number since March to 7,195.

The district’s seven-day covid rate has fallen to 95 per 100,000 people.

Elsewhere, the rate for North Yorkshire stands at 84 and the England average is 119.

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It comes as Prime Minister Boris Johnson unveiled his roadmap out of lockdown to MPs today.

A reopening of schools on March 8, care home visits and gatherings outdoors between two households by the end of next month are included in the plan.

Meanwhile, the legal restrictions on social contact could be lifted by June 21.

Mr Johnson said the government was looking to relax restrictions “cautiously”.

Harrogate hospital among 10 trusts at full critical care capacity

Harrogate and District NHS Foundation Trust is one of 10 NHS trusts in England consistently reporting critical care beds at full capacity, according to the latest figures.

NHS data from December 31 until January 10 shows Harrogate District Hospital’s critical care ward is full.

The hospital’s base critical care capacity is seven beds but this can ‘flex’ to 10 and beyond, trust chief executive Steve Russell told the Stray Ferret in November.

It utilised 11 beds on January 6 and January 9 and although the number has fluctuated it has not dropped below eight this year.

The number of critical care beds in Harrogate is nowhere near as high as it is for many hospitals in larger towns and cities.

Nevertheless, the analysis by the BBC names it as one of 10 trusts out of 140 with consistently full critical care beds.

An NHS spokesperson told the Stray Ferret:

“Critical care services in the NHS are under unprecedented pressure, which is why we’ve increased capacity significantly to continue to provide care.

“Hospitals continue to work to increase their capacity to help patients with covid and other conditions but ultimately it is essential the public continues to follow the ‘hands, face, space’ guidance to prevent the spread of coronavirus, reduce the number of people who need hospital care and ultimately save lives.”

The total number of available critical care beds in England on January 10 was 5,503, with 4,632 occupied.

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Harrogate District Hospital reported it had 47 coronavirus patients on January 14.

The increase in coronavirus patients prompted the hospital to announce last week it had decided to postpone some non-emergency surgeries to free up space and staff.

Tim Gold, the chief operating officer at the trust, said:

“Clearly, this past week has seen a very significant increase of people needing inpatient care.

“This is placing a significant strain on services at the trust.

“In response to rising numbers we are increasing the number of beds available for patients with covid on wards and in critical care.

“We will be continuing to provide urgent and cancer care during this time.”

Two further coronavirus deaths at Harrogate hospital

Two coronavirus deaths have been confirmed on the same day at Harrogate District Hospital, according to latest NHS England figures.

Both deaths were recorded on November 11. It takes the total number confirmed at the hospital since the start of the pandemic to 93.

It comes as a further 53 coronavirus cases have been tested positive in the Harrogate district, according to today’s Public Health England data.

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The figure takes the total case number since March up to 3,300.

Meanwhile, the district’s weekly rate stands at 294 per 100,000 people.

It is the second highest in the county behind Scarborough, which stands at 580.

North Yorkshire is still tracking above the national average. The county has a rate of 311 compared with the England average of 267.

Yvette Cooper MP: ‘no spare staff for Harrogate Nightingale’

A senior Yorkshire MP has fuelled fears the Harrogate Nightingale hospital does not have the staff to open for covid patients.

Yvette Cooper, Labour MP for Normanton, Pontefract and Castleford, told a covid debate in Parliament on Wednesday that Mid Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust currently has over 280 covid patients — 70% more than in April.

Ms Cooper said the trust had to cope with fewer staff than in April, adding:

“It cannot use the Harrogate Nightingale, because there are no spare staff to send there.”

She added she was worried about the pressure on NHS staff and urged Health Secretary Matt Hancock to “work urgently with Yorkshire hospitals to get them more support and more staff in place over the next couple of weeks, when the pressure is likely to be greatest”.

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Mr Hancock responded:

“We are working with hospitals across Yorkshire and across the whole country to try to make sure that we have the most capacity available.

“It is true that the numbers going into hospitals across Yorkshire continue to be far too high, and there is an awful lot of work we need to do, but the most important thing is that we get this virus under control in order to bring that number of admissions down.”

Last month Lord Newby, the Ripon-based Liberal Democrat leader in the House of Lords, expressed similar concerns to Ms Cooper when he said the Harrogate Nightingale “simply does not have the staff available to allow it to operate safely”.

No patients so far

The Harrogate Nightingale has not treated a single covid patient so far.

The Stray Ferret asked NHS England whether Ms Cooper’s claim was correct and, with covid rates in the region soaring, whether there were any plans to finally open the hospital.

A spokesperson for NHS Nightingale Hospital Yorkshire and the Humber, which is the full title of the Harrogate Nightingale, replied:

“The NHS Nightingale Hospital Yorkshire and the Humber is a valuable resource to support the local area and remains on standby, ready to quickly step up based on expert clinical advice, if needed.

“As part of comprehensive activation plans, a model that can be scaled up as and when additional capacity is required in the region has been developed. This ensures that the right skill mix of staff will be available from NHS trusts in the region.”

Harrogate’s Nightingale hospital cost £27m to set up

The government has revealed it cost £27.3 million to set up Harrogate’s Nightingale Hospital.

The sum is the third highest of the seven Nightingale hospitals in England and almost twice as high as previous data had suggested.

Health minister Edward Argar gave the total set up costs of each hospital on Friday in response to a written question by Layla Moran, the Liberal Democrats spokesperson for education.

The figures were:

Mr Argar said:

“The total set up costs for all seven Nightingale sites equates to approximately £220m.”

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The NHS took over Harrogate’s Convention Centre in April for the hospital but so far it has not been used to treat coronavirus patients.

It has capacity for 500 patients across the eight halls in use for the hospital. Birmingham’s Nightingale had 500 beds on set-up, with capacity to double that immediately if required, and increase to 8,000 should the number of cases rise significantly.

Similarly, London’s ExCel centre was set up for 500 patients, with the ability to expand to take 5,000 if required. Manchester has 1,000 beds, Sunderland 460, Exeter 116 and Bristol 60, with expansion potential for 300 beds if needed.

Government figures in July showed the Department of Health and Social Care spent £14.89m constructing the Harrogate hospital. Dutch construction firm BAM was awarded the contract.

The Stray Ferret asked NHS England why the new figure was so much higher but had not received a response by the time of publication.

No coronavirus deaths for nine days at Harrogate Hospital

Harrogate District Hospital has now gone nine days without reporting any deaths in patienta who tested positive for coronavirus, according to NHS figures today.

It means that the death toll at the district hospital remains at 80.

Nationally, a further 19 people who tested positive for coronavirus have died in hospitals. Of that number, four were in the North East and Yorkshire.

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NHS England said the patients were aged between 60 and 96 years old. All had known underlying health conditions.

It takes the national death toll up to 28,672.