Will Sheffield's FlyDSA Arena be turned into a Nightingale hospital during pandemic?
There are no plans to turn Sheffield’s FlyDSA Arena into a Nightingale hospital during the coronavirus pandemic, it has been announced.
Sheffield City Trust, which runs the venue, confirmed it has offered space in the Arena to Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust to help it take delivery of around 1,800 new beds during the coronavirus crisis.
The Arena is being used to store old beds, which cannot be disposed of normally because of the pandemic.
Andrew Snelling, chief executive of SCT, said: “It is important that at this time all city organisations work together across a variety of sectors. We were only too pleased to assist Sheffield Teaching Hospitals in this way and the old beds are now safely stored.
“Contrary to reports in some sections of the media there are no plans for the Arena to be another Nightingale hospital. But we stand ready to work with STH, Sheffield City Council and the NHS during the outbreak of COVID-19.
“The health and wellbeing of the people of Sheffield is at the heart of everything we do. We made the decision to close our venues on March 17, ahead of government guidelines which were issued on March 20, and we continue to monitor advice from the relevant authorities.”
Kirsten Major, chief executive at Sheffield Teaching Hospitals, posted on Twitter: “We are very grateful to FlyDSA Arena Sheffield who are working with us to provide additional logistics capacity at this time.
“Before COVID-19 started we had ordered circa 1,800 new beds for our hospitals as part of a planned replacement scheme because our beds are over 10 years old and becoming inefficient to repair. We can no longer dispose of the old beds as we would normally do and need the space in our own stores for other supplies at this time.
“The arena team have been amazing in offering to store the old beds until they can be disposed of once the outbreak is over. Thank you FlyDSA Arena Sheffield team for all your incredible support.”
A total of 33 hospital patients have died in Sheffield after contracting coronavirus.