THE NORTH-EAST'S coronavirus field hospital near Sunderland has been placed on 'standby' following a rise in Covid-19 admissions.
Three 'Nightingale Hospitals' across the UK have been told they could be "brought back into use" to help prepare for areas hardest-hit by Covid.
During a Downing Street press briefing this morning, NHS England's professor Stephen Powis confirmed the 460-bed hospital would be placed into a state of "readiness".
Among Sunderland's Nightingale Hospital, Prof Powis said field hospitals in Manchester and Harrogate, North Yorkshire, would also be placed on standby.
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In a statement, he said: “To protect our staff and our patients we will be introducing – with tests provided by the Test and Trace service – regular testing for staff in these high-risk areas, even when they don’t have symptoms.
“This will help us keep staff and patients in those hospitals as safe as possible.
“Secondly, we have asked the Nightingale hospitals in Manchester, Sunderland and Harrogate to prepare for this next phase.
READ MORE: The number of Covid patients in North-East hospitals as Nightingale placed on standby
The field hospital is located off the A19 near Nissan Picture: JIM SCOTT
“They are being asked to mobilise over the next few weeks to be ready to accept patients if necessary.”
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It is understood that local clinicians will decide whether they are used for Covid patients or to simply provide extra capacity to maintain services for people without coronavirus.
'Hospital infections have started to rise'
Prof Powis said there were now more patients in hospital with coronavirus than there were when the Government ordered the lockdown in March.
“As the infection rate has begun to grow across the country, hospital infections have started to rise,” he told the briefing.
“It is clear that hospital admissions are rising fastest in those areas of the country where infection rates are highest, particularly the North West.
“In the over-65s – particularly the over-85s – we are seeing steep rises in the numbers of people being admitted to hospital so the claim that the elderly can somehow be fenced off from risk is wishful thinking.”
The hospital has never been used
Inside the Nightingale Hospital North East Picture: JIM SCOTT
Since officially opening in May, the hospital has never actually been used to treat Covid-19 patients.
Among with the rest of England's Covid-19 field hospitals, the Sunderland site was mothballed following a decline in the number of hospital admissions.
It was first thought that the Nightingale would need to open to patients if the number of cases in the region would "overwhelm" the NHS.
READ MORE: See inside the Nightingale Hospital North East as Ant and Dec among stars to open it
In July, the Government confirmed it would give the NHS an extra £3bn in funding to prepare for a possible second wave of the coronavirus pandemic.
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