In March the NHS booked almost all the private beds and staff available in England so yes, that option too is there certainly.
“The emergency agreement, announced this afternoon and only for the NHS in England, adds around 8,000 hospital beds, nearly 1,200 more ventilators, more than 10,000 nurses, 700 doctors and 8,000 other clinical staff.”
Think back 9 months … the end was nigh, Wulhan was working flat out to build a hospital from scratch. Knee jerk reaction over here, we transformed exhibition halls; seemed like a good idea at the time, but they were never needed. Thing settle down, the virus turned out to be not so deadly, the venue management wanted to get back to planning events. Now, with the second wave new strain, they’re in limbo. It’s not as if we knew where we were or know where we are going.
Last I heard, a few days ago, Nightingale London had started removing equipment, dismantling the hospital, but that’s been put on hold. It’s currently neither an exhibition centre not a hospital. It’s advertising events for next month.
I don’t think they know whether they are coming or going right now. The Government might have helped by recognising that this was highly infectious a bit sooner. But they don’t ever seem to act until it’s an emergency state.
Well you must know my next question Zaphod ?
Have they ever used this facility,if not, why not?
Obviously the private sector can’t keep their assets on permanent
standby just to suit the NHS?
What will happen to all their rich customers if they fall sick??
Why pressurise an allready overloaded NHS when there is no need ??
Could it be that there is friction between the two systems l wonder??
Donkeyman!
The government don’t do the research Annie ?
That’s why they have advisers with scientific knowledge,(hopefully!)
Donkeyman!
I think they were needed dOOd, but as has been admitted now, they
have not got the staff?
Which is probably down to the cuts made during the financial crisis?
Donkeyman!
It’s clear it falls on deaf ears DM until the wolf is inside the door!
Well they did also remove the nursing bursary well after the crisis. They have also been wrangling with doctors about their contract, in particular junior doctors. Basically they have been doing what tories always do to the NHS.
And the advisors and scientists don’t always get it right, as has happened often in the past, and depending on which scientists you listen to…The ones who talk the loudest on the BBC are not necessarily the best ones to listen to…
Baroness Dido “Incompetent” Harding is Chair of NHS Improvement (NHSI), a non-departmental body in England, responsible for overseeing the National Health Service’s foundation trusts and NHS trusts, as well as independent providers that provide NHS-funded care. Since 1 April 2019, NHS Improvement and NHS England work together as a single organisation in the management of England’s National Health Service.
Harding hasn’t a clue about anything except horses - hence the continual and persistent chaos within the Health Service, including the confusion over Nightingale Hospitals … 
I really don’t know and - if I’m to be blunt and honest - I don’t care.
Why not?
Well, because it’s yet another of those situations (of which there are countless examples) whereby it doesn’t really matter who does what, because it can (and is) interpreted especially by media as being somehow wrong.
The above is a good example.
“We need more beds!”
Buys more beds.
“Beds are being wasted!”
:shock:
IMHO it doesn’t matter what is done, in the eyes of a certain very vocal minority (as OGF quite correctly suggests above) will say it is the wrong course of action.
[/B]
Like him or loath him, you’ve got to admire Boris’s restraint in front of the cameras. I’d just want to punch some of those cretin’s who ask stupid questions and then misquote him in the news the next day…
Well l will answer my own question Zaphod, apparently NHS only
took an option on 2000 private beds l have discovered, plus the
use of more than 200 intensive care units!! Which in the present
context does not seem many to me? I am sure private care has
many more than that!
Unfortunately l could not discover if NHS has availed itself of
these facilities yet?
This could be important, if , as seems likely, the NHS is being
overwhelmed !!
Imo, media reports should not enter into the discussion annoying as
as they may be?
Donkeyman!
I said this about Nightingale Hospitals not being used weeks back.
At the time, I read that only 1 our of 8 were in use.
Someone in my family is a nurse at the local hospital, and she said the hospitals themselves are asking the same question. Why are the Nightingales not in use?
They are not happy about so many Covid patients being put into the ‘ordinary’ hospitals full of already sick patients.
We understand it is because there is no staff available, but how much has the erection of these sites cost, just to be dismantled again, and what about when our usual hospitals reach saturation point - which seems imminent in some areas. Where will patients go then?
Exactly. They should be kept in isolation, away from otherwise ill patients.
In my opinion, the problem is a lack of foresight and planning, which is something that our authorities seem to excel at generally.
I agree with that JBR.
Any highly infectious disease should be isolated.
Good grief, even my vets do that!
It’s got to be like you said - foresight and planning at fault, because if they had checked staffing levels before hand, surely they wouldn’t have gone to the expense of building these isolation places for them just to be dismantled again?
Indeed … “Incompetent” Harding never sees anything coming … and she’s in charge of NHS “improvement” … 
It was all part of BJ’s panic plan - spending money like water and keeping his buddies in business … 
A slight side-track if I may . . if Covid patients are not isolated, it seems logical enough to imagine many more patients will be infected than might otherwise have been, which in turn means, in all probablility, many more deaths will follow.
I have asked this before but still do not know the answer - what is happening to all the diseased bodies?
I have never once heard how/if Undertakers are coping?
How long after death does a diseased remain infectious, because that would make it very difficult for Undertakers to ‘prepare’ anyone.
Are Undertakers working short staffed through illness too?
Where are the thousands of extra bodies being stored until burial?
Are Covid bodies allowed burial even, or do infectious bodies have to be cremation only?
I have been told several times that a council tip on the outskirts of a village not far from me, is now closed because it is being used as a storage facility for Covid deaths.
I cannot verify this though.