Former soldier says NHS Nightingale is ‘tough as war zone’

The ‘endless rows’ of emergency beds in London’s coronavirus field hospital have been compared to a ‘war zone’ by a former solder.

Army medic Jamie Jones served for 15 years before retiring in 2010 to become a health adviser.

But when the 41-year-old was furloughed during the Covid-19 pandemic he was taken on to help build the 4,000-bed NHS Nightingale at the sprawling Excel centre in east London.

He said working at the site, where he now maintains ventilators and other emergency gear as part of the unit’s resuscitation team, was as difficult as his time spent in Afghanistan’s Camp Bastion.

He said said the disease wasn’t just affecting the elderly with patients as young as 20 being admitted.

The father-of-one told the Mirror: ‘To see the scale of this place, how quickly patients can suddenly deteriorate, it’s genuinely frightening.

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‘It’s still early days but we’re dealing with patients requiring advanced interventions every day. This is nothing short of a war and we all have to do our bit.’

He said he wanted people to understand the true scale of the temporary site and the importance of adhering to social-distancing measures to keep it as empty as possible.

Mr Jones, who said he considered himself a hardened soldier but was still amazed at the work nurses and other medical staff were doing, added: ‘It’s industrial, with the endless rows of ICU beds in preparation for an influx everyone prays never happens.’

So far, according to leaked data seen by the paper, 19 patients were treated over Easter at the London centre.

The Health Service Journal (HSJ) is reporting that the capital’s trusts are being asked to send more than 200 doctors and nurses to staff Nightingale to increase the number of patients it can treat.

Despite its huge scale it has so far remained largely empty as hospitals have managed to cover the surge in Covid-19 cases by cutting the majority of other services offered.

Using Nightingale’s capacity is vital in helping London’s hospitals restore typical services, such as elective surgery, as well as coping with rising emergency demand for when social distancing measures are relaxed, according to a leaked letter seen by the HSJ.

Without the facility, London would face a ‘perfect storm of insufficient critical care capacity’ once normal services were phased in, NHS England’s regional director Sir David Sloman wrote.

The letter read: ‘Covid will have major impacts that last for at least 18 months and will change the way we deliver health care to our patients…

‘When social distancing is relaxed, our plans for the future of London’s healthcare will rely upon new models of care and treatment…and sustained reliance on the expert site for critical care that the NHS Nightingale Hospital will provide.

‘Utilising the Nightingale will enable us to be well positioned to avoid a perfect storm of insufficient critical care capacity that would otherwise prove an unnecessary restraint on the recovery of elective capacity, emergency care, covid-19 and winter pressure[s].’

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