Prince William said the "selfless commitment" of NHS workers during the coronavirus Covid-19 pandemic has "touched the hearts of the entire nation" as he opened the second NHS Nightingale hospital.
The Duke of Cambridge spoke passionately to staff via video link as he officially opened the new temporary facility in Birmingham's NEC.
Praising the facility as "a wonderful example of Britain pulling together", William said it is "yet another example of how people across the country have risen to this unprecedented challenge".
The new hospital is the second temporary Nightingale facility to open and will take coronavirus patients from 23 hospitals across the midlands.
The hospital, which will have a workforce of doctors, nurses, therapists and support staff, is already up running with more than 100 fully equipped beds, but it could have up to 4,000 if needed.
William said: "I am delighted to be with you all today, in digital spirit that is at least!
"Let me start by reiterating all that has been said so far and paying tribute to the incredible work that NHS staff across the country have been doing to tackle the coronavirus pandemic. Their selfless commitment has touched the hearts of the entire nation.
"The building you are standing in is yet another example of how people across the country have risen to this unprecedented challenge. The Nightingale hospitals will rightly go down as landmarks in the history of the NHS.
"The NHS Nightingale Hospital Birmingham is a wonderful example of Britain pulling together, and having spoken to some of the people who helped build it, hospitals are about the people and not the bricks.
"NHS staff, armed forces, local government, and the private sector have collectively stepped up to turn this Exhibition Centre into a Hospital.
"You all deserve our huge thanks, and you should all be hugely proud of what you have achieved in such a short space of time.
"I know that the Nightingale Birmingham will provide invaluable resources for hospitals from miles and miles around. This will reassure people across the Midlands that if their local hospitals reach capacity, there will be extra beds available for their loved ones here.
"I find that very comforting and I know many other people will too.
"I want to thank you all so much for you are doing to ensure we give the best possible care to those affected at this most challenging of times.
"And finally, I am delighted to declare the NHS Nightingale Hospital Birmingham officially open."
Before he officially opened the hospital by video link, the duke spoke from his home in Norfolk to about a dozen staff, including project director Morag Gates and consultant Prof Jamie Coleman.
They told him how the hospital was built “on kindness”, and said that it might end up being used for a totally different purpose from the one originally intended because of the shifting demands posed by the coronavirus pandemic.
Morag Gates, 59, who came out of retirement to build the hospital, said: “I explained that three weeks today we all come together to build a 4,000 bed hospital within the exhibition centre. One of the advantages we had was that the team that were asked to do this had all worked together before on the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, which we completed in 2010. Although the time scales were very short, we all knew the steps that had to be taken.
“The Queen Elizabeth was three years in construction, but the business case took eight years to be approved. Yet we built the Nightingale hospital in eight days.”
The idea for the first phase is for a 500-bed hospital, but so far it has been approved for 124 beds.
Prof Coleman said: “Because of the surge we were seeing, and the predicted super-surge that would overwhelm the capacity of our local provider trusts, we were given a deadline of being able to open 124 beds last Friday.”
He said the idea was for the hospital to take less severe patients, to allow other hospitals in the area to provide critical and acute patients. So far the Nightingale has not reached a stage where it needs to take patients.
The duke asked when they would take their first patients, to which Prof Coleman replied: “It is a very bitter-sweet issue. We hope that we will never open as we were needed to, because it would mean that Covid-19 has become overwhelming.
"It may end up having a slightly different purpose from that which we believed 14 days ago. One of the things this pandemic has made us realise is that you have to be very adaptable, very quickly.” It could end up treating patients who have had delayed surgery or treatment for other conditions, he said.
Mrs Gates said: “The original forecast was that the system could be overwhelmed by April 11, which is why we had to be ready to open on the 10th. But the restrictions that went in have undoubtedly made a huge difference to that, so we didn’t see that super-surge that had initially been predicted.”
The duke was particularly interested in the hospital’s relationship with the military, who helped build the hospital. Mrs Gates said many troops injured in Afghanistan and Iraq were treated at the Queen Elizabeth hospital. “One of our military colleagues … said that this was a time when the military could pay back for the care that the troops had received.”
Prof Coleman, an associate director of the University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust, said the duke asked “lots of very pertinent questions” including about local generosity, “both businesses and people”.
He said: “We were able to tell him about the overwhelming support that we have had, anything from supermarkets to Nestlé easter eggs. He warned about our waistlines!
“He was very interested in family life, and how this was affecting us all. It is very easy for us in a way, because we have had a real focus, even if it has been working incredibly long hours. We have been able to get out of our houses, we have had something to distract our minds from the social isolation others are feeling. He was touched by the personal stories of support and generosity of the public at this quite difficult time in everybody’s life.
“My neighbour has been mowing my lawn, very kindly. He suggested that I went and had a look and made sure that they hadn’t mowed their own initials into my back garden!
“His real pertinent question was, will there be any positives to come out of this really quite challenging situation?”
Mrs Gates said: “The answer that came from many people in the room is that we’ve all been a lot kinder to one another. The kindness and generosity that the community has shown to the NHS is something that none of us will forget. We can hope that that continues in the future.”
Prof Coleman said: “It is kindness all around - people taking time to be kind. Life is usually so rushed that nobody does that. He was struck by that.
“What makes the hospital is the people. It is the kindness of the people, both internally and externally, not the bricks, that will make Nightingale work. He said that was something he noticed himself as well, and hoped that would be something for the future, not only of Britain but of the world as a whole.”
He added: “He really wanted to get to the essence, of not just Nightingale but the people and what we are trying to achieve here. It did make us stop and reflect on what has happened. It was a very nice and sober occasion, rather than a celebration, but with an immense sense of pride. The duke really helped us understand that.”
William's father, Prince Charles, officially opened the first Nightingale Hospital in London's ExCeL earlier this month.
The heir to the throne spoke just days after recovering from the deadly virus himself.
He said he was "enormously touched" to have been asked to open the hospital at the ExCel centre in east London, built in just nine days.
Speaking via video link as he officially opened the building, he said: "It is without doubt a spectacular and almost unbelievable feat of work in every sense, from its speed of construction in just nine days to its size and the skills of those who have created it.
"An example if ever one was needed of how the impossible can be made possible and how we can achieve the unthinkable through human will and ingenuity.
"The creation of this hospital is the result of an extraordinary collaboration and partnership between NHS managers, the military and all those involved to create a centre on a scale that has never been seen before in the United Kingdom."
