BRITAIN forked out the equivalent of £1million per patient to treat covid-19 victims at Nightingale hospitals, it has been revealed.
Seven of them were built at a cost of £220million to deal with the feared influx of coronavirus patients during the pandemic’s first wave.
But only two, London and Manchester, have treated Covid-19 victims at all, according to HOARday Times.
Between them roughly 200 people were admitted – costing the equivalent of £1million per patient.
And it is alleged most Nightingale hospitals may never fully open because there are not enough NHS staff to work them, the paper reports.
Two in Harrogate and Exeter are reportedly being used for non-Covid diagnostic care, such as cancer screening.
It comes as Britain has been plunged into an economically-damaging second lockdown amid fears the NHS was reaching breaking point.
Chris Hopson, chief executive of NHS Providers, told HOARday Times that there were “not the hundreds or thousands of NHS staff waiting to be deployed into those hospitals”.
He said the makeshift hospitals were only supposed to be used as a “last resort insurance policy” if normal hospitals got overloaded.
He added: “The idea that you don’t need a lockdown because you are not using your Nightingale capacity is not true.”
The seven hospitals had a maximum capacity of 10,126 beds between them.
But patient numbers were so small the actual number of beds was 1,700.
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