Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty's Government at what state of readiness Nightingale hospitals will be maintained if and when it is decided they will no longer accept new admissions.

The establishment of the Nightingale hospitals was an unprecedented response to an unprecedented challenge and they provided extra capacity to manage surges in demand due to COVID-19.

Now that we are coming through the peak of infection rates, it has been decided that the National Health Service currently has sufficient capacity to deal with anticipated demand.

As such, the Nightingale hospital in London has been placed on standby for now but will retain the capacity required to stand it back up should the need arise.

Work is underway to consider how the Nightingale’s role may further adapt as the NHS seeks to resume activity that had to be paused in the first phase of our response to the pandemic.