Herts Covid Nightingale surge hub to be removed
Lister Hospital is planning 'pop up' isolation tents instead
Bosses at the Lister Hospital are using ‘pop-up’ isolation tents to prevent the spread of Covid-19 within wards.
But they are preparing to remove the temporary ‘Nightingale’ unit from the Stevenage site.
The latest temporary ‘isolation rooms’ – know as ‘Redirooms’ – can be put up around a patient within minutes of a positive Covid-19 test.
And their use within the hospital, in Stevenage, was highlighted to a meeting of the East and North Hertfordshire NHS Trust board on Wednesday (March 2).
In a written report, Trust chief executive Adam Sewell-Jones said the use of the ‘Redirooms’ had been “very positive” – allowing more beds to remain in use.
And he said: “The use of the Redirooms (rapid temporary inpatient isolation tents) has been very positive allowing patients to be isolated on the ward and reducing the need to close beds in the adjacent bays.”
Four of the Redirooms were reported to have been acquired for the Trust by The Hospital Charity.
Highlighting the current Covid-19 cases, it was reported to the board that the Trust continues to treat between 50 and 60 Covid positive patients.
And, it says, that when the information was collated – on February 21 – the hospital had just one Covid patient in critical care.
Mr Sewell-Jones reported that the Trust had treated more than 300 high-risk patients with antibody or antiviral treatments – either within the hospital or in the community – since September.
And he reported that the Nightingale unit – constructed on the site earlier this year – was to be removed within the next few weeks.
The facility was one of a number of ‘surge hubs’ erected across the country – to create up to 4000 additional beds nationwide.
Even before construction started Mr Sewell-Jones had said that it was hoped that it would never be used.
And at the meeting – in his written report – he confirmed that it was to be removed.
He said the Trust had looked at alternative options for the space – but that none were judged suitable. And he reported that it would be deconstructed.
He said: “Fortunately, the Nightingale unit was not required to support surge bed capacity as the impact of Covid patients and staff isolating has reduced.
“A number of potential alternative uses were explored including an inpatient facility to support care of the elderly patients, medically optimised patients or patients coming to the end of their post elective recovery.
“These alternative options to the potential Covid surge were explored by our clinical teams who did not feel that the unit was suitable for these alternative options due to a number of clinical risks.
“This final position was fed back to the national team, who were grateful that alternative uses had been explored but supported our decision.
“The unit remains on site pending deconstruction sometime in March/April.”
He said all other Nightingale surge units across the country were also to be removed – with the exception of the unit at Preston, which he said was to be used to support cancer patients.
Commenting on the use of Redirooms following the meeting, a spokesperson for the East and North Hertfordshire NHS Trust said: “We continue to do all that we can to reduce the spread of Covid-19 – with strict infection prevention measures, twice-weekly staff testing and visiting restrictions in place to help keep our patients and staff safe.
“We are always looking at innovative ways of meeting this challenge – with the introduction of Redirooms a great example of this.”
DATA reported to the meeting of the Trust board shows that in January, seven patients died from Covid-19 after picking up the virus in the hospital. Overall the data shows there were 33 Covid-19 deaths in the hospital in January.