Eight nurses and nursery nurses and several doctors from a Yorkshire and North Lincolnshire based health trust are volunteering to work in Harrogate’s Nightingale Hospital.
The NHS Nightingale is based in the Harrogate Convention Centre and was officially opened on Tuesday (April 21) by Captain Tom Moore, the 99-year-old war veteran who has raised more than £27 million for the NHS.
It provides some 500 beds for coronavirus patients, if local services need them. It is one of seven Nightingale hospitals to be set up around the country as part of a massive NHS effort to respond to the greatest global health emergency in more than a century.
Dr Graeme Tosh, Associate Medical Director at Rotherham Doncaster and South Humber NHS Foundation Trust (RDaSH), which provides mental health, learning disability and community services, is one of two psychiatrists organising the mental health support at the Harrogate based hospital to support patients and staff.
A number of doctors from RDaSH have also said they will be happy to work at The Nightingale to support patients with their mental health needs, including Medical Director, Dr Nav Ahluwalia.
The nursing staff, from RDaSH, heading to Harrogate are nursery nurses Joanne Rimmington, Maria Rodgers and Jane Whaley, health visitors Joanne Bailey, Caroline McNeil and Amy Strelczenie from the Doncaster Health Visiting Team, school nurse Mike Bell and Julie Statham, a community psychiatric nurse in RDaSH’s Older People’s Mental Health Service. The eight usually work in Doncaster. Five are qualified nurses and three of the staff will work as health care assistants.
The RDaSH staff will be called upon as and when needed and are ready to go to support the Covid-19 pandemic response.
Dr Ahluwalia said: “I’m really proud of our staff volunteering to work at The Nightingale. They work hard for our patients in Rotherham and Doncaster, and will take this dedication with them to Harrogate.”
Christina Harrison, a nurse and Director of children’s services for RDaSH, said: “Our staff are fantastic and are ready to be called to support patients with Coronavirus from across the region. They always go above and beyond for RDaSH and will do the same for The Nightingale.”
