Revealed: £350m for first three months of Nightingale hospitals

The seven hospitals, spread around, were estimated to cost £346m to set up and for their first three months of operation.

Almost a third of the total cost was earmarked for Birmingham’s Nightingale hospital, for which the contract to create and run the facility was worth £108m - the contracts stated. However, the trust said it had only spent £51.6m so far and did not recognise the £108m figure. No patients have been treated at the hospital yet.

Last month HSJ revealed that around £220m had been spent in April on establishing the Nightingales, with £15m for running costs. The discrepancy may be because of the longer period of operation.

The Nightingales were set up in London, Bristol, Exeter, Birmingham, Manchester, Harrogate and County Durham. London’s Nightingale opened in early April, while the final hospital - in Exeter – is due to open this month.

Only London and Manchester’s Nightingales treated patients, although the exact number is believed to be in the low hundreds.

The Nightingales have all been placed on standby in case of future increases in covid-19 patients, but Exeter and Harrogate Nightingales will provide CT scanning seven days a week to increase the NHS’s much-reduced diagnostic capacity.

The commercial documents, published by NHSE/I and first reported by contract analysis firm Tussell, show the regulator awarding three-month contracts to seven NHS trusts for the Nightingales.

The Birmingham Nightingale contract went to University Hospitals Birmingham Foundation Trust, while London’s Nightingale went to Barts Health Trust and was worth £55.8m.

The other Nightingales were awarded to the following trusts (with the estimated value in brackets):

• Manchester University FT (£49.6m);
• North Bristol Trust (£43.5m);
• Leeds Teaching Hospitals Trust (£41.7m);
• Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals FT (£26.3m); and
• Royal Devon and Exeter FT (£27.1m).

HSJ has asked both UHB and NHSE/I why Birmingham Nightingale’s cost is far higher than the rest of the hospitals and how much had been spent on the seven hospitals overall so far, but had not received a response at the time of publication.

However, one source said each of the seven sites had different infrastructures, which could account for big differences in set up costs.

The 500-bed Birmingham Nightingale was built at the National Exhibition Centre, with the potential for increasing its bed base to 1,500 if needed.

In the procurement documents, NHSE/I said the values of the contracts are “estimates” and that they were awarded without a proper procurement due to the “extreme urgency brought about by events unforseeable”.

A source said the allocations above were likely to cover the cost of diagnostic provision at Harrogate and Exeter Nightingales, put in place in recent weeks when it became clear they were not needed for urgent covid patients. It has not yet been confirmed if similar services will be provided at the other five hospitals.