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Oct 27, 2023

Hospital scandal EXPOSED as hundreds of Covid Nightingale beds sold for just £6

The NHS has admitted that it lost £13million on unused emergency beds for up to seven of the temporary hospitals - it bought them for £2,500 each Hundreds of hospital beds bought for Nightingale wards

The NHS has admitted that it lost £13million on unused emergency beds for up to seven of the temporary hospitals - it bought them for £2,500 each

Hundreds of hospital beds bought for Nightingale wards built during the pandemic are being sold for as little as £6 each, the Mirror has found.

The NHS has admitted that it lost £13million on unused emergency beds for up to seven of the temporary hospitals. It bought them for £2,500 each but they cannot be used in established health service wards as they do not meet current standards. It has not said how many Nightingale beds it had sold or for how much, but admitted: “There was a small number of beds that was specifically tailored for the Nightingale that could not be re-purposed and they have been sold to private sellers to recover costs for the taxpayer.”

Deputy Labour leader Angela Rayner said: “The public deserves the truth about what’s been sold off and why. Ministers must come clean over their role in giving the green light for a fire sale of beds.”

In its last two annual reports, the NHS Commissioning Board disclosed “constructive losses” of £13m, including storage costs, for “emergency beds that were procured for the Nightingale hospitals at the beginning of the pandemic”.

It added: “After the closure of the Nightingale hospitals it was deemed the beds could not be used in existing hospitals as the specifications were not to the current standard as implemented in all hospitals.” It has not been reported what happened to the beds.

But the Mirror can reveal that in February 2021 NHS Procurement offered members of the Care Provider Alliance cut-price surplus Oska emergency acute beds. Its note read: “These beds were bought for £2,500 each...they are as new and unused and available for 50% of the purchase price...the beds are available in batches of five – 100 per customer...greater discounting considered for large orders.”

Medical bed specialist Oska claimed in April 2020 that it was supplying 6,000 beds for the Nightingale Hospitals programme. We have found more than 1,000 brand-new Oska hospital beds for sale online and at auctions over the past few months.

The NHS has refused to reveal how many care providers bought the beds at half price. But the note from NHS Procurement identified two models of Oska beds it was selling off, and we have found these same bespoke beds sold across a number of auctions and websites.

From Lucy Thornton

A care home boss has demanded to know why unused beds were not offered to the struggling care sector.

Nicola Richards, of Palms Row Health care in Sheffield, said: “When social care is so underfunded, why didn’t they offer them to care providers like us? None of the providers I know were offered them.

“I’m shocked at this waste of public money. It’s scandalous. Care homes are dealing with increasingly dependent residents who would have benefited from these beds.

“The care home sector has really suffered since the pandemic – this shows they don’t want to help us.”

Nadra Ahmed, of the National Care Association, said: “This is a clear waste of valuable resource that could have benefited the social care sector at a very challenging time.”

In sales on July 26 and August 1, auctioneers Simon Charles of Stockport, Cheshire, sold 47 Oska hospital beds, with three model variants – including the two identified in the NHS Procurement note – fetching £6 to £17 each.

In April, Supreme Auctions of Worksop, Notts, held an online “liquidation sale of new and packaged hospital beds”. It sold 479 in 73 lots. The online listing read: “Made for NHS Nightingale hospital which failed to open.” Danish retailer Refurb Trading said on its website that it had 495 Oska 1003 beds for sale at $475 (£373) each, with a minimum purchase of 48.

Seven Nightingale hospitals were set up swiftly during the first wave of the pandemic.

The centres in East London, Birmingham, Manchester, Harrogate, Sunderland, Bristol and Exeter cost a reported £530million.

But they were barely used with the largest in the capital treating fewer than 60 patients and the Sunderland centre none. Most closed after less than a year.

Nicki Credland, chair of the British Association of Critical Care Nurses, said the London centre alone would have required more ICU nurses than there were in the whole UK. She said: “The only people that ever said the Nightingale Hospital in London could be opened were politicians.”

US website Bimedis had an advert posted on June 18 for “1000x Oska care beds model 1003” at £120 each and shipped from the UK. It said they were made in 2020, were unused, and had been in storage for two years. Jo Maugham of the Good Law Project said: “What we see now is beds being sold off quietly at knock down prices crystallising massive losses for the taxpayer.”

Seven Nightingale hospitals were set up in England during the first wave of the pandemic at a reported cost of £530m but were barely used. Most closed after less than a year.

The NHS said: “It was right that at the beginning of a once-in-a-lifetime pandemic the NHS increased bed numbers in line with projected Covid patients, and the majority of Nightingale beds have been re-purposed in healthcare settings.”

Oska said: “Oska were one of the many bed suppliers that felt their obligation to help the NHS during the Covid-19 pandemic. We cannot comment on any government decisions that have ensued since.”

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