The UK Government has announced plans to build a brand new hospital in London to help tackle the coronavirus.
The military is to help establish the temporary NHS Nightingale at the city’s ExCel Centre – which will have room for 2,000 people in each of its two wards.
UK health secretary Matt Hancock announced the plan during a press conference on Tuesday afternoon.
He said: “We will, next week, open a new hospital – a temporary hospital – the NHS Nightingale Hospital at the Excel centre in London.
“The NHS Nightingale Hospital will comprise two wards, each of 2,000 people.
“With the help of the military and with NHS clinicians we will make sure that we have the capacity that we need so that everyone can get the support that they need.”
It came after he revealed that some 35,000 staff had been recruited back to the NHS to help fight covid-19 – a mixture of returning health workers, final year students and others.
The government is also seeking to take on some 250,000 volunteers to assist with the national effort to tackle covid-19, help the NHS and support the vulnerable.
Mr Hancock also said 7.5 million pieces of protective equipment, including facemasks, had been shipped out in the last 24 hours.
A hotline will allow NHS and care staff to request personal protective equipment if they do not have it.
The armed forces have been involved in the logistics and Mr Hancock said it had been “literally a military effort to get these millions of pieces of kit out to people”.
He added:“If people are working on the front line to look after us, it’s vital that we look after them.”
