London's coronavirus hospital NHS Nightingale will need 16,000 staff if Excel Centre site hits full capacity

London’s new NHS Nightingale Hospital could need a staggering 16,000 members of staff to treat coronavirus patients should it reach full capacity.

The new 4,000-bed temporary facility at the ExCel convention centre is due to open this week despite building work only starting last Wednesday.

Split into more than 80 wards containing 42 beds each, the Nightingale will become one of the biggest hospitals in the world, according to its chief operating officer Natalie Forrest.

And Ms Forrest said a "scary" number of staff would be needed to run the facility at full capacity and appealed for volunteers to come forward.

"If we have to use this facility, which I really hope we don't because everyone is staying home and washing their hands and social distancing, we will need thousands of doctors and nurses and volunteers to run this facility," she said.

Asked to clarify how many are required, Ms Forrest said: "The numbers are scary, but if I tell you that to run one ward, including all of our ancillary staff, we need 200 members of staff.”

The facility will be used to treat Covid-19 patients who have been transferred from other intensive care units (ICU) across the capital.

Some 10,767 people are currently in hospital in England, with 3,915 of those in London and 1,918 in the Midlands, where hospital admissions are accelerating.

A total of 1,789 patients have now died overall in UK hospitals as of 5pm on Monday, the Department of Health said, up by 381 from 1,408 the day before.

The Nightingale will initially aim to care for 42 patients, before its expansion is "ramped up" to ensure it can meet its full 4,000-bed capacity in two weeks' time if needed, the Nightingale's chief medical director Alan McGlennan said.

He said coronavirus patients who are transferred to the hospital will already be on a ventilator and will remain at the Nightingale until their course of ventilation is finished.

Coronavirus patients suffering from other serious conditions - such as cardiac issues - will be better cared for at other specialist centres, Mr McGlennan said.

While the Nightingale will be able to provide up to 4,000 ventilator beds if they are needed, NHS London will still have control over the "most precious resources", he added.

Eamonn Sullivan, the hospital's director of nursing, said the facility will be able to operate as a large intensive care unit or a normal ward, depending on demand.

The Nightingale will also include support services found in other NHS hospitals, such as pharmacies and therapy treatment, Mr Sullivan said.

Meanwhile, staff working at the Nightingale will be able to sleep at nearby hotels once they finish their shift, Mr Sullivan said.

"We have got the facility here at ExCel and there is many, many thousands of hotel rooms. It is a perfect location," he said.

"If staff wanted to stay, they could stay, so it is optional. But if they want to go home, then they can.

An NHS England spokesman said the equipment being used at the Nightingale was all "new kit" and had not been borrowed from other hospitals.

Military personnel have been working 15-hour shifts to help transform the convention centre in east London into the hospital.

Colonel Ashleigh Boreham, from the Army Medical Services, said plans for the hospital were only conceived on March 21 in a meeting between the NHS and military.

Since then, up to 200 personnel, including infantry from the 1st Battalion The Royal Anglian Regiment, have been assisting contractors and NHS staff with its construction.

Col Boreham, who is the project's senior military lead, supporting the advisory mentoring team, said: "I arrived on site and met with the NHS last Saturday.

"We literally sat down with a piece of paper and some drawings and came up with a concept that the NHS and us thought would work well.

"From that point there, we have re-purposed this wonderful building into an NHS hospital."

He said the number of military personnel on site has expanded from eight to 60 over the past week, ranging from medical advisers, engineers and logistics staff.

However, the numbers increased further when infantry soldiers were brought in to help at the peak of the facility's construction.

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