NHS writes off £13m in Nightingale hospital beds cost

NHS managers have written off £13 million after beds bought for Nightingale hospitals could not be used for patients on other wards.

The seven Nightingale sites included a facility at Harrogate Convention Centre — which cost £31.6 million to set up and run. However, it didn’t treat a single covid patient.

According to NHS England accounts, the beds bought for the sites were “bespoke beds for field hospitals” and did not meet the requirement for existing hospitals.

The figure also includes storage costs at the facilities.

The accounts say:

“After the closure of the Nightingale hospitals, it was deemed that the beds could not be used in any other existing hospitals as the specifications were not to the current standard as implemented in all hospitals.

“These beds are now subject to renewed plans for redeployment to the new field hospitals.”

The NHS has set up Nightingale surge hubs as part of its response to the Omicron covid variant. However, St James’ University Hospital in Leeds was chosen over Harrogate for a facility.

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The 500-bed hospital at Harrogate Convention Centre was one of seven Nightingale hospitals set up at the start of the covid pandemic in March 2020. It was dismantled last year.

An inquiry revealed that of its £31.6 million costs, £17 million was spent on building and dismantling works, £10.4 million on running costs and £4.1 million on equipment.

A further £1.1 million was spent on security and around £500,000 on cleaning and food.

Members of West Yorkshire Joint Health Overview Scrutiny Committee launched the inquiry into the hospital after raising questions over why it was not used to treat any covid patients and how it would have been staffed if needed.

The committee concluded that while these questions remain unanswered, the need for the Nightingale hospitals across the UK showed there was insufficient critical care capacity in regular hospitals.

Harrogate Nightingale remains ‘on standby’ amid new covid strain

NHS bosses have said once again that Harrogate’s Nightingale hospital remains on standby amid renewed questions about why sites are not being used to treat covid.

The emergence of a new mutant strain of coronavirus has raised questions about why the hospitals, which cost hundreds of millions to set up, are yet to be put to use.

The rapid rise in covid cases has prompted nearby York Hospital to build an additional intensive care unit.

Conservative MP John Redwood is among those calling for answers. He tweeted:

“Time for ministers and top NHS management to explain what increases in all types of capacity they have made, what they are doing on infection control and why they are not using the Nightingales.”

Lord Newby, the Liberal Democrats leader in the House of Lords, has said the Nightingale “simply does not have the staff available to allow it to operate safely” and called for Harrogate Borough Council to resume control of the building.

The 500-bed hospital at Harrogate Convention Centre was built in April and cost £27 million to set up, but has yet to treat a single covid patient.

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The Stray Ferret asked NHS England whether the hospital had plans for the hospital in the wake of the new mutant strain emerging.

A spokesperson said: 

“The NHS Nightingale Yorkshire and the Humber is on standby to care for patients should it be needed and has been operating a clinical imaging service since June to support local trusts in delivering diagnostic and surveillance CT scans, with more than 3,000 patients having now been seen at the clinic.”

Harrogate Borough Council is continuing to bill the NHS over £100,000 a month for gas, electricity and water at the Nightingale.

The council does not charge the NHS rent for the building. However, figures from Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust show the venue, which opened in the early 1980s, incurs significant costs for utilities.

The Stray Ferret has requested interviews with the NHS about the Harrogate Nightingale on numerous occasions but so far has not received one.

 

Strayside Sunday: the inconsistencies, anomalies and inequities of a tier

Strayside Sunday is our weekly political opinion column. It is written by Paul Baverstock, former Director of Communications for the Conservative Party. 

The Covid-19 limitations we have all had to live with these past 10 months are really starting to grind.  As the country emerges from its second national lockdown we have to contend again with the inconsistencies, anomalies and inequities of a tiered system of restrictions that have been placed on our liberties.  Unsurprisingly, compliance fatigue is setting in.

Pubs and restaurants are open again, albeit if only for patrons of the same family or support bubble.  As local establishments returned to business this week they and their diners had to contend with the presence of Big Brother, in the form of North Yorkshire Police and Harrogate Borough Council staff, checking that those present were practising safe social distancing and that table guests were support bubble appropriate.  Three of Harrogate’s best restaurants, William and Victoria’s, The Fat Badger and The Tannin Level had the pleasure of entertaining the state’s loyal foot soldiers, tiptoeing table to table, encroaching on the privacy and relaxation of their guests.  Enforcement activities smack of a lack of trust, both in the individual and the establishment. As far as we know Winston Smith wasn’t among those present.

Being of solid Yorkshire stock, most of the diners would no doubt pass Environment Secretary George Eustace’s “Scotch Egg test,” namely consuming a ‘substantial’ meal to accompany their libations.  I don’t know about you but I think a scotch egg is a snack, consumed guiltily, either at a motorway service station, or (secretly, so your partner doesn’t notice) on the way home from doing the weekly shop.  And am I alone in feeling a little irked about the selection of a Scotch Egg as the people’s meal?  Surely a vol-au-vent would be more suitable for genteel Harrogate.

As with all government public pronouncements of late, this was quickly contradicted by Michael Gove, the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, who, between the Brexit negotiation skirmishes he is coordinating to no great effect, seems to be acting as if he, rather than Bojo, is the one in charge.  Wherever one looks at the top of government for leadership and consistency, despair sets in.

This seems to be the view of a great many of the Conservative Party’s MPs who this week rebelled en masse when asked to rubber stamp the latest tiered lockdown regulations in parliament.  55 Tories rebelled, another 16 abstained or failed to vote at all.  All the other parties, including Labour largely abstained.  So too the Liberal Democrats, without irony, notwithstanding that ‘liberal’ is actually in their name.  Little wonder then that they remain an irrelevance.  If we can’t rely on Ed Davey’s tribe to stand up and put the case for freedom, dignity and the well-being of individuals, then who will?  Given that is what is written in the Liberal Democrat’s constitution, one could be forgiven puzzled disappointment.

Residents of Pateley Bridge and the Nidd Valley in particular will be wondering who is in their corner?  There hasn’t been a single case of Covid in the locality for ten days and yet they find themselves dealing with the blanket restrictions of Tier 2 lockdown.  Smaller, independent hospitality businesses in the area, operating without the advantages offered by large national ownership, see no way to open profitably.  This can’t be fair.  Small businesses are struggling on, having invested in making their venues Covid-secure, but unless circumstances change soon they will become financially unviable and we will lose them.  Our communities will be all the poorer for it.

One Lib Dem who spoke up this week is Lord Newby of Rothwell, leader of the yellows in the Lords.  He argues that the time has arrived for the NHS to hand back Harrogate’s Convention Centre to the council.  Press ganged into action as a Nightingale Hospital, the building is yet to receive a single Covid-related patient.  While we of course have to be thankful that the hospital lay dormant through two case number peaks, there remains lingering doubt about whether and how the NHS would have been able to adequately staff the hospital had it been necessary.  It’s time for Harrogate Borough Council to take back the centre and get on with building back better .

The news that vaccines are now in the country brings some solace at least and at last.  We know that healthcare workers and care home residents and staff are to be vaccinated first.  This has to be the right thing to do.  Not least because frontline NHS staff have shown their usual dedication to providing care in the face of considerable risk to their health and emotional wellbeing.  The government now needs to break with its recent history of staccato do’s and don’ts and communicate clearly how the rest of vaccination programme will be rolled out across the population as a whole.  By providing clarity about who will be vaccinated when, we can each inform our own behaviour accordingly.  In the end the government is going to have to trust us to decide what is best for ourselves and our families.  It’s called

Freedom.

That’s my Strayside Sunday.

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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.”