A senior Yorkshire MP has fuelled fears the Harrogate Nightingale hospital does not have the staff to open for covid patients.

Yvette Cooper, Labour MP for Normanton, Pontefract and Castleford, told a covid debate in Parliament on Wednesday that Mid Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust currently has over 280 covid patients — 70% more than in April.

Ms Cooper said the trust had to cope with fewer staff than in April, adding:

“It cannot use the Harrogate Nightingale, because there are no spare staff to send there.”

She added she was worried about the pressure on NHS staff and urged Health Secretary Matt Hancock to “work urgently with Yorkshire hospitals to get them more support and more staff in place over the next couple of weeks, when the pressure is likely to be greatest”.

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Mr Hancock responded:

“We are working with hospitals across Yorkshire and across the whole country to try to make sure that we have the most capacity available.

“It is true that the numbers going into hospitals across Yorkshire continue to be far too high, and there is an awful lot of work we need to do, but the most important thing is that we get this virus under control in order to bring that number of admissions down.”

Last month Lord Newby, the Ripon-based Liberal Democrat leader in the House of Lords, expressed similar concerns to Ms Cooper when he said the Harrogate Nightingale “simply does not have the staff available to allow it to operate safely”.

No patients so far

The Harrogate Nightingale has not treated a single covid patient so far.

The Stray Ferret asked NHS England whether Ms Cooper’s claim was correct and, with covid rates in the region soaring, whether there were any plans to finally open the hospital.

A spokesperson for NHS Nightingale Hospital Yorkshire and the Humber, which is the full title of the Harrogate Nightingale, replied:

“The NHS Nightingale Hospital Yorkshire and the Humber is a valuable resource to support the local area and remains on standby, ready to quickly step up based on expert clinical advice, if needed.

“As part of comprehensive activation plans, a model that can be scaled up as and when additional capacity is required in the region has been developed. This ensures that the right skill mix of staff will be available from NHS trusts in the region.”

A peer has expressed concerns the Harrogate Nightingale hospital will not open because it “simply does not have the staff available to allow it to operate safely”.

The government said this week the hospital was on standby to receive covid patients.

But Lord Newby, the Liberal Democrat leader in the House of Lords, told the Lords yesterday:

“It is widely believed in Yorkshire that, as far as the Nightingale hospital in Harrogate is concerned, this will not happen because the hospital simply does not have the staff available to allow it to operate safely.”

Lord Newby, who lives in Ripon, asked Baroness Evans of Bowes Park, the Conservative leader of the House of Lords, if she could “assure the House that this is not the case”.

Baroness Evans replied that the hospital was already being used for CT scans — which did not reassure Lord Newby.

Speaking today to the Stray Ferret, he said:

“I raised the issue yesterday because I had heard from several NHS sources that the Nightingale hospital had neither the equipment nor more importantly the staff to open fully.

“I was not at all reassured by Baroness Evans’ response. She said that the Harrogate Nightingale was currently being used for CT scans and implied that it was on standby to open for covid cases.

“She explicitly refused to answer my specific question about whether the hospital had the staffing levels which would allow it to open safely for covid patients.”

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Lord Newby said he doubted NHS England would want to admit there would be real difficulties getting the Harrogate hospital working with covid patients on any scale.

An NHS England spokesperson for the hospital said:

“As part of our comprehensive activation plans we have developed a model that can be scaled up as and when additional critical care beds are required in the region.

“This ensures that the right skill mix of staff will be available from NHS trusts in the region, and via NHS Professionals and through direct recruitment if required.”

The contract for Harrogate’s Nightingale hospital has been extended for two weeks to allow for talks between the NHS and the council to continue.

The NHS contract was due to expire last Friday, July 31, with no announcement made at the time about whether it would be extended or the field hospital would be decommissioned.

Now, Harrogate Borough Council has said it is continuing talks with the NHS over the future of the site. If the hospital moves out, Harrogate Convention Centre would be able to host events and conferences over the winter, in line with covid guidelines.

A council spokesman said:

“We continue our discussions with colleagues from the NHS about their future plans, and a two week extension has been granted to the current agreement to allow those discussions to continue. However, at this stage, nothing has been decided.”

The delay is likely to cause concern among businesses in the town. Andrew Manby, a director of events company Joe Manby Ltd, previously told the Stray Ferret the NHS needed to make a decision to enable local businesses to plan for the future.

Hospitality in the town, including hotels, restaurants and bars, is heavily reliant on people visiting the convention centre for trade and public events. As the rest of the country begins to reopen, Mr Manby said Harrogate could be left behind if the Nightingale continues to occupy the whole venue.

The convention centre owners and managers are still planning ahead for future events whilst the future of the Nightingale is uncertain

The convention centre team, meanwhile, have been preparing measures to enable events to go ahead safely as soon as they are possible. Additional space could be offered free of charge, one way systems introduced, and even cameras allowing organisers to measure crowd density around the halls.

Longer days and additional dates could also be offered to event organisers to allow more people to visit over longer periods, supporting social distancing.

Read more:

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The two-week extension comes after the Prime Minister announced a £3 billion fund to support the seven Nightingale hospitals until the end of March. Since then, however, the one hosted at Birmingham NEC has been scaled back, allowing the venue to resume events from October with a smaller standby hospital in another part of the site.

The Harrogate Nightingale Hospital is yet to treat any coronavirus patients, but has been used as a facility for outpatient CT scans since early June. The NHS is not paying any rent to the council for use of the convention centre.

The Stray Ferret has previously reported the convention centre is under financial strain. The council is this week due to vote on a £1m investment which would pave the way for a £46.8 million renovation project.

Government should compensate for a loss of business at Harrogate Convention Centre due to the Nightingale Hospital extension, say opposition councillors.

Pat Marsh, Liberal Democrat leader of the opposition on Harrogate Borough Council, said the hospital was needed but added that the government should offer support for the impact of having the convention centre out of action for longer.

It comes as Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced £3 billion worth of funding to maintain the Nightingale Hospitals across the country until the end of March.

NHS England will be given the money in preparation for a potential second wave of covid-19 this winter.

Read more:

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But Cllr Marsh said the conference centre “underpins” Harrogate’s economy and the government should be made aware of its economic impact.

She said:

“We do need the hospital as a fallback. But I think we need the government to give us some compensation to filter down to those businesses that are going to be left high and dry.

“The government needs to know what impact it is having. It needs to step up to the plate.”

Earlier this year, local businesses raised fears about the impact of having the convention centre unable to host events for at least a year.

Harrogate Borough Council said it is still discussing with NHS Yorkshire and Humber over what role the Nightingale at the convention centre will play.

The prime minister has confirmed that money has been set aside to keep the Nightingale hospitals available until 2021. We continue our discussions with NHS Yorkshire and Humber about what role @HgtConventions will play, but nothing has yet been decided. pic.twitter.com/e6Z4njx8Vl

— Harrogate Borough Council (@Harrogatebc) July 17, 2020

Andrew Jones, Harrogate and Knaresborough MP, has been contacted for comment but had not responded by the time of publication.

If cases remain at a manageable level for existing hospitals, the Nightingales will continue to offer extra capacity for routine testing and treatment. The Nightingale hospital in Harrogate has been offering CT scanning to non-Covid patients since June 4.

It was set up by armed forces and NHS professionals in just three weeks in spring to offer additional treatment facilities for patients from across Yorkshire and the Humber. Staff were trained on site, staying in local hotels, but no Covid patients were ever admitted and the hospital was eventually put on stand-by.

The NHS was not paying any rent for use of Harrogate Convention Centre under the initial contract. It is not yet clear whether rent will now be payable to Harrogate Borough Council, which owns and runs HCC.

The 99-year-old war veteran who has raised over £27 million pounds for the NHS, appeared via video link to officially open the new Nightingale hospital in Harrogate today.

Capt Tom Moore, a Yorkshireman himself,  raised the money by completing 100 laps of his garden before his 100th birthday later this month.

During the opening ceremony, Capt Tom Moore said there was ‘no better place than Yorkshire’, he went on to thank all of the NHS staff  for working with ‘such determination during such a difficult time.’

It has taken just under 3 weeks to convert the Harrogate Convention Centre into the NHS Nightingale hospital Yorkshire and the Humber.

A virtual ceremony was held to open the 500-bed facility at Harrogate Convention Centre.

Blue lights will be switched on tonight at 8pm at the Harrogate Nightingale Hospital as part of a special Clap for Carers to mark its construction.

Harrogate Convention Centre and the NHS Nightingale Hospital Yorkshire and Humber want to encourage residents nearby to ‘Clap for Carers’ or to bang pots, cheer and generally make a noise. Emergency services, construction workers and NHS teams will also be invited to join the applause at the centre itself.

The lighting is part of a national movement to light theatres, bridges and cathedrals, castles, sports stadiums, and national landmarks for the #lightitblue campaign.

Around 20 blue lights have been lent to the HCC by AV Matrix from Wetherby and Yorkshire Lighting and Electrical Services which is based in Harrogate installed them around the front of the building.  Glen Molloy, the owner of Yorkshire Lighting and Electrical Services, said:

“Normally it would take about 2 weeks to get it organised but on this occasion we turned it around in a matter or hours.

Lights For Fun also based in Harrogate have donated blue fairy lights for the 12 trees that line the Kings Road beside the centre. Jo Naughton Co-Founder of Lights for Fun told The Stray Ferret:

“The whole centre will be illuminated blue. The idea is that we are all behind the NHS and that Harrogate is in full support of having a Nightingale hospital here in our town. We just wanted to show appreciation for what the NHS does for us and it feels good to help.”

Paula Lorimer, the HCC’s Director said:

“All who have worked on the project, including Convention Centre staff from caterers to electricians, have put their heart, soul, sweat and tears into the transformation, working around the clock to support the NHS. I am incredibly proud of my team, and I hope all the town will want to show their thanks tonight.”

NOTE: Residents in or near Kings Road are asked to please not leave gardens, balconies, doorsteps etc. or congregate in any way outside of the venue. Residents across Harrogate are also asked to not congregate in any way at the venue, and to stay in their homes and comply with government guidelines on social isolating.