Government has paid private firms £6.5BILLION during COVID crisis – including £500,000 to test-and-trace disaster Baroness Dido Harding’s ex consultancy – as services struggled to cope The analysis shows 1,262 contracts handed out to date, worth £6.61billion Some £2.6billion of contracts were handed out in June alone, they show Figures collected by Tussell, a database … Read more
Care home lockdown plan was rejected by ministers at the peak of the coronavirus outbreak last month Public Health England proposed stronger lockdown in care homes last month Downing Street had received an 11-point plan from the body on April 28 Plan urged ministers to ‘use NHS facilities… to quarantine and isolate residents’ The moves … Read more
Knittingdale hospital! Great-great-grandmother, 91, raises money to help the NHS fight coronavirus with her own woolly replica Margaret Seaman has used her knitting needles to raise money for the NHS Once completed, it will have four wards, an X-ray department and a coffee shop Mrs Seaman hopes the Knittingale will raise at least £5,000 for … Read more
NHS worker, 24, was stabbed eight times while chatting on the phone to his girlfriend days before his father’s funeral, court hears, as teenagers, 18 and 16, appear charged with murder David Gomoh, 24, was stabbed in Newham shortly after his father passed away Muhammad Jalloh, 18, appeared at London’s Thames Magistrates’ Court today Another … Read more
London’s flagship Nightingale hospital will be mothballed to new patients and placed on standby, it has been revealed today. Staff were sent an email this morning from chief executive, Professor Charles Knight, who told them the hospital would be placed on standby, ‘ready to resume operations as and when needed in the weeks and potentially months to … Read more
Will empty Nightingale hospital be moved into hibernation? ExCel Centre facility could be mothballed within days after it treated just 51 patients in three weeks The ExCel Centre, which opened on April 3, has the capacity for 4,000 beds But it faces closure after remaining largely empty, with just 51 patients treated Staff told that … Read more
Britain’s near-empty Nightingale wards could be filled with the majority of Britain’s coronavirus patients in order to make the UK’s permanent hospitals ‘Covid-free zones’. Health Secretary Matt Hancock is planning to reopen key areas of the NHS for routine care – including cancer treatment starting from today. Five of the seven planned Nightingale hospitals set … Read more
The Nightingale Hospitals epitomise the ‘Dunkirk Spirit’ the country has always relied on in times of crisis. ‘My grandfather was at the Somme,’ said the army commander who helped plan the flagship 4,000-bed hospital in east London, which opened to great fanfare at the start of the month. ‘I’m just at a different battle.’ The … Read more
The giant Nightingale hospital that hasn’t treated ONE patient: West Midlands Mayor Andy Street admits new temporary health centre in Birmingham has ‘not needed to be used’ yet The temporary hospital, which was built in eight days and has the potential capacity for 4,000 patients over a 75,000 sq ft area, opened on April 10 … Read more
Elderly coronavirus patients in care homes should be evacuated to the empty Nightingale hospitals, MP demanded yesterday. At least 7,500 elderly residents have died from coronavirus amidst warnings that the virus was a potential disaster for the caring sector. Scientists initially warned the government that hospitals would not be able to cope with the influx … Read more