How Sunderland's Nightingale Hospital could now be used as North East faces Tier 3 covid restrictions

Similar hospitals have been set up across the country to step in if the NHS was overwhelmed by a surge in the rate of virus transmissions.

RELATED: North East leaders meet to discuss potential move into Tier 3 covid restrictions

The North East’s centre at the Sunderland International Innovation Centre has been described by health chiefs as a ‘last resort’.

If the 460-bed hub is needed, it could be used as a ‘step-down facility’ rather than for critical care beds, as originally intended.

“At this moment in time hospitals across the North East are coping in terms of the Covid pressures and in relation to critical care,” said Peter Sutton, accountable emergency officer at South Tyneside and Sunderland NHS Foundation Trust (STSFT).

“It would be very much a last resort in terms of using the Nightingale Hospital, there are a number of actions organisations would take before pressing that button.

“I think it’s probably honest to say it’s highly unlikely that it would be used for something like critical care if we did have to open the Nightingale.

“If you look at the North West for example that has looked to mobilise their Nightingale Hospital, they’re using it more for a step-down facility so they require much less medical input and it’s more a case of making sure those patients are safe and ready to go whether it’s home or a care home.

“So it’s more likely the Nightingale in the North East, if it was ever to be used and hopefully it won’t be and there are certainly no plans at this moment in time where we’re anywhere near needing to use that, it would be used more for that sort of purpose rather than going back to its original purpose which was around some critical care overflow.”

Sutton was speaking at a meeting of Sunderland City Council’s Health and Wellbeing Scrutiny Committee on October 28, responding to a question from councillor Pam Mann about plans for the hospital in coming months.

In August, it was revealed the NHS Nightingale Hospital North East, as it is officially known, would stay open until the end of March 2021, ready to deal with the impact of a sudden surge in confirmed cases in the region.

It is yet to accept a single patient.

Chiefs say patients needing ‘critical care input’ within STSFT had reduced compared to wave one levels.

In response to a question from councillor Michael Butler, Peter Sutton added local trusts would be able to increase critical care capacity if needed.

He went on to say: “Clearly none of us have a crystal ball in terms of what’s going to happen over the next few months but we do have plans if need be that we can press those buttons in terms of increasing our critical care capacity as an organisation.

“We can go across our two main sites to just over 50 critical care beds and if you look across the North East you will see similar patterns across the trusts where they could probably double their critical care capacity ahead of using anything like the Nightingale facility.

“It’s far better that we cope and deal with critical care within our own organisations than having to use the Nightingale facility.”

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