[title]
It was just a couple of weeks ago that the health secretary Matt Hancock announced that the ExCel centre was going to be turned into a 4,000-bed treatment space for patients suffering with Covid-19.
Since then, Londoners have pulled together to turn the conference space into NHS Nightingale Hospital. As the pandemic heightens, it will be here that young and otherwise healthy capital-dwellers with severe Covid-19 symptoms will be taken. Meanwhile, patients who are more at risk will get beds in permanent hospitals.
An Instagram account sharing pictures of the hospital’s progress shows a dramatic transformation.
The main space of the centre has filled with hospital beds, the car park is now home to ambulances and a Costa Coffee stand is becoming a pharmacy. Pictures also show staff testing the hospital’s functionality using dummies.
Lots of the work has been done by members of the army and St John Ambulance, with callouts for additional electricians and catering staff going out last month. Once the hospital opens, it will be staffed by NHS clinicians, volunteers from St John Ambulance and members of cabin crew from easyJet and Virgin Atlantic airlines – currently unable to work due to travel bans – who are first aid-trained. It’s an incredible effort that makes us feel proud to be Londoners.
Scroll down for more pictures, or head here to watch footage of Londoners clapping the NHS.