NHS Nightingale Hospital Yorkshire and the Humber | |
Org/Group: | Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust |
Coordinates: | 53.9968°N -1.5414°W |
Location: | Harrogate Convention Centre King's Rd, Harrogate HG1 5LA, Yorkshire |
Healthcare: | NHS England |
Type: | COVID-19 critical care Field hospital |
Opened: | 21 April 2020 |
Closed: | March 2021 |
Website: | https://www.leedsth.nhs.uk/nightingaleyh/ |
The NHS Nightingale Hospital Yorkshire and the Humber is one of the temporary NHS Nightingale Hospitals set up by NHS England in 2020 to help to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic. The hospital was constructed inside the Harrogate Convention Centre, Harrogate, and from 4 June 2020 was repurposed as a radiology diagnostic clinic.
In March 2021, it was confirmed the hospital would close.[1]
To add extra critical care capacity during the COVID-19 epidemic in England, and to treat those with COVID-19, plans were made to create further temporary hospital spaces for those in need of treatment and care.[2] [3] They were named "Nightingale Hospitals", after Florence Nightingale who came to prominence for nursing soldiers during the Crimean War and is regarded as the founder of modern nursing.[4]
The hospital was initially rumoured, then announced as officially planned on 3 April 2020,[5] and became ready to open on 14 April. It was formally opened, via video link, by 99-year-old fundraiser Captain Tom Moore.[6] It was administered under Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust.[7]
It initially had beds for up to 500 people.[8] It was not a conventional walk-in hospital, and only patients who were already inpatients in other hospitals in the region and met certain criteria were to be admitted.[8] They would stay at the hospital until they were assessed as being ready to move back to a local hospital.[8]
The hospital was not required to treat COVID-19 patients in April and May. Instead it was reopened as a radiology outpatient clinic, offering CT scanning, from 4 June 2020.[9] Appointments would be available seven days a week, through Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust and Harrogate and District NHS Foundation Trust. In August, it was reported that this usage would continue until March 2021.[10]
On 12 October, 2020 amidst a rise in cases in Northern England, the hospital was placed on standby.[11]
Its closure was confirmed in March 2021.
The following have been involved in the creation of the hospital: