What’s next for the Nightingale equipment?

The global COVID-19 outbreak saw the highest ever value of medical devices purchased over a six-month period. During this time, the UK Government alone purchased 30,000 ventilators along with similar numbers of patient monitors, syringe drivers and patient warmers. Much of the equipment went to the Nightingale hospitals. As the process of decommissioning starts, thousands of pieces of equipment need to be moved – but where to? Matthew Pinder discusses the potential strategies.

When Florence Nightingale said, “Working hard is how to be successful”, she could never have envisaged how true her words would be in relation to the hospitals named in her honour, set up to help the NHS manage the huge influx of COVID patients expected in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.

These seven hospitals, one in each NHS region of England, were set up in record time (London’s ExCel exhibition centre was transformed into a Nightingale hospital in just nine days) and represent a massive achievement, a true coming-together of suppliers more used to competing for projects than working collaboratively.