A Nightingale is reborn.

I know they say they have the staff but they must be coming from another department of the health system. The bottom line is we have not got enough qualified Drs and nurses in this country.

Good that some of the Nightingales are being re-purposed in this useful way.?

That is very good news indeed.

Sorry to be grumpy but why don’t people read the thread before they comment. The poster said they were luckily staffed for this initiative!!

Someone exercising some common sense in health service, great to hear.

…….but will it be successfully staffed

Our Nightingale in Bristol is now being used to take over the vaccinations from the main hub at Ashton Gate (as football & rugby is starting(
I think that's a brilliant idea and hope ours does the same but as the conference centre for UWE I doubt it

Home not hope
Ohh for an edit button sigh sigh

But does it have nurses and other staff I hate to pour cold water on your enthusiasm but they had no staff to use them during the CoviD pandemic where have all the staff suddenly come from
Our friend was trained up sent down to London to work in the nightingale hospital was put up in a hotel where she stayed for three weeks I think she got two weeks work and then was sent hope as they had no staff to continue using them
I hope it happens but I m not at all confident

I will be very surprised if they can get the staff needed. Doctors take years to train so even with the increase in training places,it will be years before we see more doctors in the NHS. Also the price of houses in Exeter are expensive so nurses would struggle to afford to live in the area on the wages they get.

Great news for us here in the south west Ellianne !

That's brilliant news, but who will staff it? When they opened the Nightingale Hospitals to cover pandemic the biggest problem was they didn't have the staff to cover the shifts.

That's great news. I hope the same will happen with other Nightingale hospitals all over the country. We need more hospitals to serve our expanding communities, not less.

Bil was a meteorologist at the Met Office in Berkshire Bracknell, and along with other scientists refused to relocate to Exeter. Too primitive and out of touch he called it. Roll on however many years, maybe 30, and he had big regrets. Exeter found new meteorologists to fill the vacancies and according to bil they had a better quality of life too.

It could be that the services there have been overstretched in the past decade or two and that the new hospital was going to have to happen.

I’m glad to read they’re doing something useful with it.

Crystal46

Living in Exeter is now even more of a bonus!

Except that is so much more busy than it used to be.

Living in Exeter is now even more of a bonus!

Let’s hope they have sufficient staff for the hospital. So many Drs are now working part-time.

Good news. There was always a worry about staffing them, but it’s great to hear one’s going to be used.

I read somewhere that places at medical school to train young doctors had been increased and so in the future there should be more home grown doctors qualifying. I don't understand why the NHS continues to be so underfunded after years of neglect, I would have thought that those young people able to qualify for medical school could be funded so that more people from poorer backgrounds could also apply.

As far as I can remember, this was always the plan. The problem is staffing them. Glad this is happening.

At least one is being used, the similar one set up in Glasgow has closed and been disbanded unused. Our local high school has no places available for the influx of people coming to live on the coast from towns and cities all over the UK. Smaller rural high schools can't take this relocation surge, we have a lot from London and the south buying up here.

Callistemon

Excellent news, Ellianne. Let's hope other areas do something similar.

Interesting that Devon has a population boom - perhaps people realise that working from home for some does mean that home can be anywhere.

Yes, the independent school I taught at in West London is losing 45 pupils come September due to relocation. Mainly to Devon, Cornwall and Norfolk.
It is mainly young families heading west. Hopefully along with home workers, it also includes keyworker professionals too (NHS etc) to staff the new hospital as maddyone and 25Avalon say. London will undoubtedly find new blood from somewhere else.

They say

According to a statement issued by the RD&E health authorities across the South west have actually had to purchase the Nightingale hospital which will start being used in the Autumn primarily for hosting diagnostic testing and ophthalmology, orthopaedic, and rheumatology services. They also intend to have 2 operating theatres for orthopaedics. There is a backlog of patients especially in North Devon so this will be a welcome addition. In May they received additional funding specifically to decrease waiting lists. It’s already provided over 6,ooo diagnostic tests.

They sat they will be recruiting extra staff so let’s hope they are successful.