The National Health Service (NHS) in the UK has opened a new temporary community hospital in Surrey as part of its response towards Covid-19 pandemic.
The hospital is named after Mary Seacole, a British-Jamaican nurse who served soldiers injured in the Crimean War.
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Situated in Leatherhead, the new facility will be utilised to serve patients who are recovering from Covid-19.
It will also accommodate other patients who have been in the hospital for routine treatment.
Overall, the hospital is designed to feature up to 300 inpatient beds, if needed.
NHS chief executive Simon Stevens said: “As well as providing important care in its own right, this new service – by recalling the pioneering work of Mary Seacole – rightly pays tribute to our BAME nurses and other staff at the forefront of the extraordinary NHS response to this terrible Covid-19 pandemic.
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By GlobalData“It also serves as a timely reminder that it is their contribution over the past seven decades that has been a foundation for the very success and continuation of the NHS itself.
“I fully expect that this will be just the first of a number of Seacole services that will now begin to be established across the country as the NHS moves through the peak of inpatient coronavirus care and the need for community health and rehabilitative services grows.”
As of 5 May, more than 191,000 people in the UK are infected by the Covid-19, while the death toll has crossed 28,000.
