The government spent £530m on showy infrastructure for healthcare – but failed to invest in the staff who provide it
“Up to 200 soldiers a day have been working alongside NHS and civilian contractors,” ran the breathless commentary as the Nightingale hospital at the ExCeL centre in London prepared to open last April. This was Britain’s first “coronavirus field hospital”, with space for 4,000 patients, put together in nine days. Morale was “amazing”, reported one nurse, who was brushing up on her knowledge of ventilators via e-learning modules in a nearby hotel.
Six other pop-up centres were meant to alleviate pressures around England as hospitalisations for Covid-19 cases rose rapidly. But while the Nightingales may have sent a “message of hope”, as Prince Charles said when he opened the first one, the overall scheme was a costly mistake. Manchester’s treated about 100 people with Covid; Exeter’s had 29 patients this month. Bristol and Harrogate have provided an overflow service for other patients and services. But Nightingales in Birmingham and Sunderland treated no one at all. In all, about £532m was spent for remarkably little gain.
