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30
Nov 2020
'Time to hand Harrogate Nightingale back to council'
One of the Harrogate district's most senior politicians has said the time has come to accept the Harrogate Nightingale hospital will never be used for covid and handed back.
Lord Newby, the Liberal Democrats leader in the House of Lords, said the NHS should let Harrogate District Council take back control of the building.
Lord Newby spoke to the Stray Ferret after receiving what he described as "non answers" to a series of questions he submitted to the government about staffing and bed capacity at the Nightingales in Harrogate, Sunderland and Manchester.
He asked how many nurses were required and was told by the Conservative peer Lord Bethell that “each Nightingale team has been developing a clinical model that can be scaled up as and when additional capacity is required in the region”.
Lord Newby said last month he doubted the Harrogate Nightingale had the staff to fully open and has now said:
'Flawed concept'
The government has described the Nightingales as "insurance policies". But with the peak of the second wave of the pandemic believed to have passed, and a vaccine on its way, the chances of them being used have receded.
Lord Newby said the concept of using the Nightingale was "flawed from the start". He added:
Read more:
- Exclusive: Harrogate Nightingale hospital 'unable to open safely'
- Yvette Cooper MP: 'no spare staff for Harrogate Nightingale'
The Stray Ferret has requested interviews with the NHS about the Harrogate Nightingale, which was set up to treat covid patients in Yorkshire and the Humber, on numerous occasions but so far has not received one.
A spokesperson for the hospital said in a statement:
Lord Newby replied:
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