Coronavirus: Holby City donates ventilators to Nightingale hospital

Coronavirus – The BBC medical drama Holby City has donated fully working ventilators from its set at Elstree to be used in London’s new NHS Nightingale Hospital.

The corporation shared the news in a tweet, with a photo of workers unloading equipment from a van.

Holby City executive producer Simon Harper said they wanted to help “the courageous and selfless real-life medics”.

The drama, set in a fictional West Country city, has paused production.

It is unclear how many ventilators have been donated, or why operational medical equipment was used on set.

A ventilator takes over the body’s breathing when disease has resulted in the lungs failing.

The first of the government’s emergency field hospitals to help fight the Coronavirus was created in just nine days, opening at east London’s ExCel centre last Friday.

The BBC donated the ventilators to the London Nightingale as the drama is filmed at Elstree studios, in Hertfordshire.

Last month, Holby City and another BBC medical drama, Casualty, announced plans to donate protective equipment and other kit from their sets to the NHS.

London’s temporary Nightingale Hospital is able to hold as many as 4,000 patients and is the first of several such facilities planned across the UK.

There are also Nightingale hospitals in Birmingham, Manchester, Bristol and Harrogate, with two more announced on Friday on Wearside and in Exeter.

The BBC’s move follows a government drive to source thousands more ventilators to help ease the pressure on hospitals caused by the pandemic.

British manufacturers have answered the government’s appeal by turning their operations to making novel ventilators.

Read Also – Mahmood Ahmadu brings revolutionary banking approach to Dubai

An order has been placed by the government for 10,000 newly-designed machines from technology firm Dyson.

It came as the UK recorded its highest daily death toll since the outbreak began, with another 980 recorded hospital deaths, bringing the total to 8,958.

That death toll, which does not include those who died in care homes or the community, has now exceeded the worst daily figures seen in Italy and Spain.

Source – https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/