Another Question

[maggiebee]

£532 million was spent on the Nightingale hospitals which treated a total of 54 patients.  Are these hospitals being used today?  

[ToraToraTora]

No they were contingencies but the pandemic didn't get that bad in the end. Once vaccination was sorted they were not needed.

[237SJ]

No. Didn't they have a handful of patients?

[Hopkirk]

It wasn't well thought through. They created the temporary hospitals, but would never have been able to staff them.

[maggiebee]

Oh dear, more money down the drain then?

[237SJ]

yes

[Buenchico]

Moderator's note:

Maggie:
Please find a better category to post 'serious' questions in:
https://postimg.cc/vDJLVbJk

[237SJ]

It's easy to spend other peoples' money.  Why are you surprised

[ToraToraTora]

You'd have been the first one screaming blue murder if they were needed and not there.

[maggiebee]

Apologies to the Mods. Wasn't sure where to put this. Could you suggest an appropriate category?

[curlyfries81]

Is there an OCD category?

[Buenchico]

>>> "Could you suggest an appropriate category?"

I might have used 'How it Works', or even 'Body & Soul', but 'Current Affairs' would probably do just as well.  (I'd be the last person to suggest that AB's categories are anywhere close to perfect though!)

[theshedman]

Not all Nightingale hospitals closed.  The one in Exeter is still open and has been expanded.  It now does some operations and outpatient clinics.  

[newmodarmy]

You can't win with these things.  One of the complaints about Covid preparation was why didn't we have huge stocks of PPE on standby just in case. It would have helped us deal with the pandemic but if instead we'd only needed half of it I'm sure people would have complained at the waste.

If hospitals had become completely full and people couldn't be admitted for Covid etc then people would have said where's the contingency, we should have built even more Nightingales.

It's only in hindsight anyone knows if we had over-planned or underplanned.

I do think Nightingales were a kneejerk reaction, to be seen to be doing something, given that we didn't have the staff. But they could have been useful if we;d had to put Covid patients in separate buildings from other patients.

Hindsight is a wonderful thing

[douglas9401]

It was either build the facilities or stand on the doorstep clapping and banging a pot with a wooden spoon.

Jury's still out on the most effective.

[davebro3]

They SHOULD have been used to take covid positive patients from normal hospitals instead of sending them back to their (care) homes.

[theshedman]

I'm glad ours in still in use as I have to go there every few months because of my sight.  They run many clinics there and are doing more and more ops to help get numbers down at the main hospital.  Also we don't have to pay to park there as there is a free park and ride which stops outside.  It is nice and clean and I have never seen a hospital with so many toilets and bathrooms. 

[newmodarmy]

I'd be interested to see the source of the 54 patients figure. I have looked at acouple of Nightingales that admitted several hundred in early 2021 (when the Kings Fund did a review on them). Not huge numbers but certainly not 54

[jourdain2]

I could not, and still do not, understand why - when the hospitals had been built at great expense - they were demolished (many unused, I gather).  

Obviously we do not have the nurses/doctors to staff them as full hospitals............. but why, oh why, did no-one think to keep them as convalescent homes?  Minimal qualified medical staff needed and they would have cleared the backlogs in the wards.  

Can anyone give me a good reason, please?  I'm baffled, especially when the hospitals are clogged, (we are told) by 'bed-blockers'.

[theshedman]

jourdain2, as I put in my earlier posts our Nightingale in Exeter is still open and does ops and has day clinics to help keep numbers down.  

[jourdain2]

Well done Exeter!  My stepson lives near there.