Timelapse video shows construction of 'phenomenal' coronavirus hospital in Birmingham

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A timelapse video shows how the new coronavirus hospital in Birmingham being built as it is constructed over the course of just eight days.

The Birmingham Nightingale Hospital on the outskirts of the city is set to open tomorrow after it took two weeks for the project to come to fruition from the initial planning stage.

It will have 496 beds divided into four wards, with the potential to be increased to 800 if needed.

The field hospital at Birmingham's NEC is one of many NHS Nightingale Hospitals being built up and down the country in response to the coronavirus pandemic.

The temporary field hospital was built in just eight days
PA

The site will be taking patients who are recovering from Covid-19, those for whom it is “not appropriate” to ventilate because of age or illness and palliative patients “who it is clear cannot get through this illness”, its chief executive said.

Staff will be drawn from Midlands hospitals, including from those who have returned to work after recently retiring.

Dr David Rosser is the chief executive of Birmingham’s biggest hospital trust, University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust (UHB), and the new NEC-based Nightingale.

He said: “The Nightingale Hospital is going to take patients who don’t need really complex care; ventilation, dialysis – that sort of thing, out of the main hospitals.”

Unlike London's Nightingale Hospital at the London ExCel centre, the Birmingham site will not be taking critically ill Covid-19 patients.​

The NHS Nightingale Birmingham Hospital is set to open on Friday
PA

Dr Rosser said that building the Nightingale meant “everybody who needs a bed during this extraordinary period will get one” and that it would mean no repeat in the UK of “the scenes we saw in Italy and Spain”.

Morag Gates, project director of the Birmingham Nightingale, came out of retirement to run the build.

Mrs Gates, who previously oversaw delivering the new Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham, called the NEC facility “phenomenal”.

She added that the physical build would only have taken eight days by the time doors open to patients.

By comparison, getting the business case signed off for Birmingham’s QE had taken “eight years”

Field Hospitals around the world to battle Coronavirus

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“We’ve managed to plan and fit out a hospital in less than two weeks, which is phenomenal,” she added.

“It is the best example of teamwork I’ve ever known and I’ve worked in the health service since 1979.”

Major Angela Laycock, of the Royal Engineers, who has led on the ground for the military, said: “I did some engineering maths, working out how many beds we could fit in a given space, and we came up with a concept for 125-bed bays.

“My draughtsman stood in here on Sunday and said, ‘I cannot believe this was just on my laptop a week ago’.”

As well as brains, the Army has also provided brawn, including about 80 loaders, tradespeople, telecommunications experts and engineers.​

A Downing Street spokesman said: “Huge credit should go to all those involved in getting the hospital set up so quickly.”

He added that the third Nightingale Hospital in Manchester was expected to open in “the next week or so”.

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