Most of the hastily constructed Covid centres have never had a patient, with some repurposed
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Seven Nightingale hospitals, built to cope with the feared pressures on the NHS in England from a first Covid-19 wave, remain on standby – albeit in some cases repurposed or having been considered for alternative use.
They include one at the ExCeL conference centre in east London that can provide up to 500 intensive care beds, and which would be the largest intensive care unit in Europe if fully operational. It has treated a small number of patients, all of whom have left.
