Cost of Nightingale Hospital Bristol unknown

The NHS claims it is unable to reveal the cost of an emergency field hospital in Bristol that has still not been used.

The Nightingale hospital was built at the UWE Bristol’s Frenchay campus in less than three weeks in April to provide up to 300 intensive care beds for coronavirus patients.

However, it was not even used when Weston General Hospital closed to new patients after a spike in Covid-19 cases last month, and options are being explored for how it could be used.

These include the hospital “hibernating” or being used by UWE for medical training.

The NHS has not said how much any of the seven Nightingales in England cost to build. The spokesperson for Bristol’s said queries about costs had to go through NHS England, but the government organisation said it did “not have these figures”.

It recommended submitting a Freedom of Information request, although an automated response says the body is not currently responding to new and existing complaints – it is unclear if that applies to FoI requests. Limited information is available online.

Government procurement portal ProCure 22 said construction firm Kier was awarded a £5.4million contract to create a “Bristol Surge Centre” that was due to be completed in April, around the same as the Nightingale opened.

The North Bristol NHS Trust (NBT) was listed as the client.

However, papers from a May board meeting say the trust received £16million in March of “cost recovery for Nightingale, which is mainly for the setup cost”. Pay accounted for £100,000 of that figure.

According to the Huffington Post – which has also tried to get answers out of NHS England –  all five field hospitals in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland cost an estimated £86million to build.

ProCure 22 lists a £10.25million to install Manchester’s Nightingale Hospital, which has 750 beds. Downing Street has confirmed it is the only pop-up facility treating patients.

The NBT is not the only local NHS body to have incurred costs from Bristol’s Nightingale Hospital.

Board papers show that the University Hospitals Bristol and Weston Trust incurred £2.7million of additional costs in April relating to Covid-19. Some £181,000 related to “supporting the Nightingale Hospital”.

According to papers from the Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire clinical commissioning group, any costs associated with the Nightingale hospitals will be funded by NHS England Specialised Commissioning.

The UHBW Trust board heard last month that the Nightingale hospital was not needed when Weston General Hospital closed because there was spare capacity in Bristol and Taunton.

But chief operating officer Dr Mark Smith also explained: “The Nightingale isn’t an intensive care unit. It was provided for respiratory support. As we’ve learned more there’s a multi-organ failure process, with 25 to 30 per cent requiring renal therapy and rehabilitation.”

It is unclear if the field hospital will ever be used, or how long it will remain in place.

UWE said on April 3, before the Nightingale opened, that the hospital was expected to be used over the summer and the Exhibition and Conference Centre would be handed back in time for the next academic year in the autumn.

Minutes from the CCG’s May meeting – which was not open to the public – include comments from chief executive Julia Ross that contradict that.

She said the hospital was expected to be used until the end of the financial year and UWE was “considering how to utilise the hospital for possible medical training”, the minutes reveal, and she highlighted the importance of “utilising the resource” while it was available.

She said NHS chief executive Simon Stevens told her there would be “no regrets with setting up covid-19 contingencies such as the Nightingale Hospitals”.

Ross told the meeting that teams were reviewing possible options to use the hospitals, including “hibernating” them when not in use, extending to patients discharged from the acute trusts to reduce the pressure of long-staying patients, or used as a space for renal replacement therapy.

According to minutes from the CCG’s strategic finance committee meeting on May 1, chief finance officer Sarah Truelove said discussions were taking place about “the legacy we need to leave as there is analysis that the South West has a lower number of critical care beds”.

The Nightingale Hospital Bristol was officially opened on April 27 – Ben Birchall/PA Wire

A UWE spokesperson said this week: “The NHS continues to have UWE Bristol’s full support, and discussions are currently taking place regarding the future of the hospital. An announcement will be made once a decision has been reached, along with further details regarding use of our campus.

“However, we can confirm that whatever the outcome of these discussions, the site will continue to be completely self-contained, and no UWE Bristol staff or students will be able to access the site or need to be anywhere close to it.

“The site is still controlled by security and fencing to ensure that no-one other than approved NHS staff and contractors have access. We have been operating clearly defined separate zones across campus to ensure NHS staff are separated from UWE Bristol staff and students on site at all times.”

The Ministry of Defence deployed more than 290 military personnel, including 135 combat medical technicians, to support healthcare professionals at the NHS Nightingale facilities in Harrogate and Bristol in April.

Defence secretary Ben Wallace said at the time the medics would “support their NHS colleagues however necessary in the fight against the coronavirus outbreak”.

The UWE spokesperson confirmed that the Army has now left the campus.

The hospital was created in a matter of weeks

The Bristol Nightingale Hospital spokesperson said: “The NHS Nightingale Hospital Bristol was established to provide additional critical care beds for the whole of the Severn area.

“The expectation was always that the temporary hospital would only be used as and when critical care capacity within the Severn area was full.

“To date, thanks to the hard work of NHS colleagues in the region and large numbers of people following the expert advice, there has been no need to use our hospital, but we are very aware that this could change if there is a surge in cases.”

Stephen Sumner is a local democracy reporter

Main photo by Ben Birchall/PA Wire

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