Some of the first coronavirus patients have started to arrive at the new NHS Nightingale hospital in London.
It comes are the NHS Louisa Jordan is prepared for potential patients from Scotland at the SEC in Glasgow.
The first patients were admitted to the London hospital on Tuesday evening, the facility is at based in Newham, east London.
A spokeswoman declined to say how many people were being treated at the custom-built field hospital at the ExCeL Centre in the capital’s Docklands, the Press Association reported.
Opened by Prince Charles via video call on Friday and named after nursing pioneer Florence Nightingale, it will be staffed by upto 16,000 clinical and ancillary workers.
With more than 80 wards containing 42 beds each, the facility will be used to treat Covid-19 patients who have been transferred from other intensive care units across London.
Those who are admitted to the hospital will already be on a ventilator and will remain at the Nightingale until their course of ventilation is finished, the hospital’s chief medical director has said.
Staff will be able to sleep at nearby hotels once they finish their shift, the hospital’s director of nursing, Eamonn Sullivan, said – though they can also choose to go home.
Contractors and around 200 military personnel worked to get it up and running in around nine days.
Preparations for the NHS Louisa Jordan in Glasgow have moved at a similar pace.
NHS chief executive Sir Simon Stevens has called its construction “nothing short of extraordinary”.
He added: “Now we are gearing up to repeat that feat at another four sites across the country to add to the surge capacity in current NHS hospitals.”
Other Nightingale hospitals are due to open in Bristol, Harrogate, Birmingham, and Manchester.
The ExCeL centre has said it will not charge the NHS for use of the exhibition space after the initial deal included some contributions to costs.
NHS Scotland are also using the SEC in Glasgow free of charge.
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