Prince William praised the “selfless commitment” of the NHS staff battling against the coronavirus pandemic as he launched the NHS Nightingale hospital in Birmingham. This structure is the second hospital built in record time in the UK that will be entirely dedicated to treat those affected by COVID-19.  

In his brief speech, the Duke of Cambridge spoke of the “herculean effort” made by those who built the hospital in just three weeks inside the National Exhibition Centre. 

Prince William, speaking from his home in Norfolk, said: “I want to congratulate and thank all of you for all your hard work in putting this together.

“I think it’s a herculean effort, it really is, and you should be rightly very proud of what you’ve achieved. 

Please sign up to pledge your support now to our brave NHS Heroes

“Thank you for everything you’ve done, it really means a lot to everybody.” 

Before the beginning of the ceremony, Prince William held a call with some of the people who took part in the creation of the hospital. 

Among them there was project director Morag Gates, who told the royal this project was built “on kindness”. 

Mr Gates, who came out of retirement to help build the second hospital of this kind in the UK, recalled his conversation with the Duke. 

He said: “I explained that three weeks today we all come together to build a 4,000 bed hospital within the exhibition centre.

“One of the advantages we had was that the team that were asked to do this had all worked together before on the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, which we completed in 2010.

“Although the time scales were very short, we all knew the steps that had to be taken.

“The Queen Elizabeth was three years in construction, but the business case took eight years to be approved.

“Yet we built the Nightingale hospital in eight days.”  

This hospital will likely take in patients suffering from mild forms of coronavirus to ease the pressure on other structures in the West Midlands, which will then be able to provide better help to critical and acute patients, Prof Jamie Coleman said. 

The NHS Nightingale hospital in Birmingham is yet to receive its first patients. 

Asked by Prince William when the first ones will arrive, Prof Coleman explain how quickly the situation can evolve with coronavirus.

The expert said: “It is a very bitter-sweet issue.

“We hope that we will never open as we were needed to, because it would mean that Covid-19 has become overwhelming. 

“It may end up having a slightly different purpose from that which we believed 14 days ago.

“One of the things this pandemic has made us realise is that you have to be very adaptable, very quickly.”  

MORE TO FOLLOW 

Source: Read Full Article