Barts Health to manage new Nightingale Hospital London

Ventilators are stored and ready to be used by coronavirus patients at the NHS Nightingale hospital, a temporary specialist hospital being set up at the ExCel centre to help tackle coronavirus. Picture: Stefan Rousseau/PA Wire

The specialist hospital, based at the ExCeL conference centre at Royal Docks, will care for up to 3,500 people affected by COVID-19 and is due to accept its first patient this week.

Barts Health manages five hospitals including Newham Hospital in Plaistow, Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel and Mile End Hospital.

The trust says its established and resilient group operating model means it could manage a sixth hospital without detriment to the services it currently provides.

ExCel is situated within the trust’s catchment area in Newham.

Work continues at Nightingale Hospital at the ExCel centre, which is expected to open this week. Picture: Stefan Rousseau/PA Wire

NHS regional director for London, Sir David Sloman, said: “London has been hit earliest in what is the single biggest challenge facing the country in generations.

“We are taking extraordinary action to help protect and care for Londoners, but we simply cannot do this alone, which is why NHS staff are pleading with the public to follow medical advice – stay at home, stop the virus spreading, and save lives.”

Barts Health group chief executive officer Alwen Williams will be the accountable officer for the hospital’s services and St Bartholomew’s Hospital chief executive Professor Charles Knight has been seconded to lead the management team, which is being assembled from a number of NHS bodies in London.

Ms Williams said: “I’d like to thank the NHS across London for working together to provide such a superb response to the coronavirus crisis, while simultaneously ensuring our existing hospitals can rise to the challenge of delivering high quality care to thousands of new patients during the pandemic.”