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https://ukaviation.news/london-city-airport-to-become-raf-nightingale-in-covid-19-battle/
London City Airport Could Become RAF Nightingale In COVID-19 Battle
Martin the Martian
26th Mar 2020, 18:55
Watching a C-17 undertake either the standard LCA approach or a tactical approach would be interesting.
treadigraph
26th Mar 2020, 18:58
C-130 went in yesterday.
https://www.newsflare.com/video/346619/royal-air-force-c130j-hercules-cargo-plane-carries-out-a-practice-landing-and-takeoff-at-london-city-airport-24th-march-2020
Why? The RAF know how long the runway is at LCY and they know the performance of a C-130. All they have learned is that one crew can do what they've been trained to do. Isn't it?
Or did it maybe deliver ground support equipment?
Probably just a good opportunity when commercial traffic levels are so low.
qwertyuiop
26th Mar 2020, 20:25
I’ve seen Hercs landing in fields with a much steeper approach than LCY. They must be laughing.
NutLoose
26th Mar 2020, 20:40
Maybe a moral booster for those in London.
The cynic in me says they are testing the Government evacuation plan for evacuating from London when the place turns to poo. :cool:
XL189
26th Mar 2020, 20:45
Watching a C-17 undertake either the standard LCA approach or a tactical approach would be interesting.
They put one into Cosford a while ago and their runway is only 3700 feet!
It reversed back along the runway to take off!
Could be the last?
26th Mar 2020, 21:56
Imagine if we still had Wroughton, Halton, Derriford, Haslar, Ely, Nocton.....
I've watched a C17 reversing around a ramp, the locals were somewhat not amused watching their vehicles being up ended and swept away.
At least they couldn't hear the bloke on the ramp laughing...
safetypee
27th Mar 2020, 07:46
LCY closed for commercial operations.
Small 'bz' to the RAF in achieving this; the evolving situation will demand much more.
The best people, with suitable equipment, ability to respond, flexibility, adaptability, and required thinking to bring it all together
Also, good big picture planning, government, local authority, etc. Create large emergency hospital, staff it, near airport for airlift, etc.
Perhaps similar plans for Birmingham - NEC and airport; Puma trial operations for wide area air ambulance duties.
Well done to all - so far; confidence in people, the country, and pride. ( As one US commentator put it after the Falklands, the UK punches above its weight. )
Asturias56
27th Mar 2020, 08:33
why do they need to fly in? the roads are empty - oh I forgot - defence review coming up............................
No doubt the QE2 will shortly appear next to Tower Bridge
Busta
27th Mar 2020, 08:41
could have re phrased the heading
Homelover
27th Mar 2020, 08:42
Asturias
I think you mean QEC! 😂
Asturias56
27th Mar 2020, 09:00
BOTH the way things are going....... :p
safetypee
27th Mar 2020, 09:30
Asturias, 'why do they need to fly in?'
Good road access in London enables tactical movement for patients within the city.
LCY is more strategic air transport, moving people and equipment over longer distances, between airports, particularly supplies into the city for central distribution to other hospitals.
Compare this with Birmingham, where the need for air transport is highly tactical, between locations without airports - helicopters; hub and spoke to a main hospital, better time and distance than road.
Strategic supply still required, thus have a main airport base.
I expect the Navy will sail a ship up the Thames to show they're TOPP. Or a submarine.
(TOPP isn't an abbreviation but a quotation from Nigel Molesworth, in case anyone is scratching their head)
Mogwi
27th Mar 2020, 09:45
Several years ago Compton Abbas (800m grass) had a night visit from a Herc. Landed, backed up and departed.
Mog
chevvron
27th Mar 2020, 09:48
Did no-one think of re-opening the 'contingency' hospital at Little Rissington? 1800m of runway there not just the 1500m of City.
Remote enough for a quarantine zone, but those days are past - and too remote from any city for a major hospital. Which is why the other sites on the list are near Birmingham, Newcastle etc, and where available airports exist.
Union Jack
27th Mar 2020, 10:50
Imagine if we still had Wroughton, Halton, Derriford, Haslar, Ely, Nocton.....
If I may - please delete "Derriford" and insert "Stonehouse". RNH Chatham too far back in time and most of the many other RNHs too far back and too far away.
Jack
Islandlad
27th Mar 2020, 11:39
I expect the Navy will sail a ship up the Thames to show they're TOPP. Or a submarine.
(TOPP isn't an abbreviation but a quotation from Nigel Molesworth, in case anyone is scratching their head)
Two carriers to be used as hospitals?
Liverpool and Edinburgh maybe?
NutLoose
27th Mar 2020, 11:51
Wasn't one of the problems the air on the cruise ships was recirculated, one would imagine a carrier would when locked down recirc the air as well.. possible not the best place to be.
Must be plenty or recently closed airfields with hangarage that could be used or major venues.
cliver029
27th Mar 2020, 12:30
Could use the USS Teddy Roosevelt as a test case there. currently sailing round in circles off Guam full of sailors with corona virus having been in Vietnam 2 weeks ago
I have no doubt that for a few £bn, BAe would be willing to attempt to turn the carriers into hospital ships by the end of next year.
farefield
27th Mar 2020, 13:04
"Did no-one think of re-opening the 'contingency' hospital at Little Rissington?"
The locals would complain like they did about second home owners.
Mortmeister
27th Mar 2020, 14:24
This looks like some good joined-up thinking going on somewhere; field hospital next to an airport!
The 'truckies' are going to love it flying in and out of LCY all day and it is not exactly bad PR for the RAF is it?
Similarly a hub and spoke set up at BHX with 'truckies' and 'SH' - nothing to criticise here!
It's a good start, I guess 'oop north' will be next....
aw ditor
27th Mar 2020, 14:41
Rissy demolished' for housing'.
air pig
27th Mar 2020, 15:32
Actually not big enough and more importantly no staff to man them.
This looks like some good joined-up thinking going on somewhere; field hospital next to an airport!
https://twitter.com/garius/status/1243103080201232384?s=21
msbbarratt
27th Mar 2020, 23:46
Could use the USS Teddy Roosevelt as a test case there. currently sailing round in circles off Guam full of sailors with corona virus having been in Vietnam 2 weeks ago
USN not been paying attention to the news headlines? To be fair though, I’m not sure where else they might have been better off making a port call. CVD-19 seems to be pretty much everywhere
TEEEJ
28th Mar 2020, 04:43
27 March
New Measures To Support Battle Against Coronavirus In Scotland
The military has stepped up its work in Scotland as part of the ongoing UK Government response to coronavirus.
From today, three RAF Puma helicopters will be stationed at Kinloss Barracks in Moray. The Pumas will work closely with a Chinook and a Wildcat helicopter based at RAF Leeming, North Yorkshire, to meet any requests for assistance from NHS boards and trusts across Scotland and Northern England.
A second helicopter facility will cover the Midlands and Southern England working out of The Aviation Task Force Headquarters at RAF Benson in Oxfordshire. Chinook and Wildcat helicopters normally based at RAF Odiham and RNAS Yeovilton respectively will support the Southern areas.
The helicopter facilities have been set up to support medical transports across Scotland and the rest of the UK. The new task force will also be available for general support such as moving equipment and personnel across the wider UK. ........
RAF MoD Link (https://www.raf.mod.uk/coronavirus/new-measures-to-support-battle-against-coronavirus-in-scotland/?fbclid=IwAR2JuFAcJi_-nvcBzlC4vlufbT11LWvkwF0_7nr3mqqABS3x1TgMLtXTyY8)
Asturias56
28th Mar 2020, 07:22
As I understand it Coronavirus cases are not time critical - you suffer for a couple of weeks (according to a friend who has it right now) - emergency evacuation by helicopter is very unlikely to be needed
And why would you risk infecting a helicopter that costs millions and its highly trained crew when a £20k ambulance will do the job just as well?
still I guess the PR folk have to do something....
higthepig
28th Mar 2020, 09:22
As I understand it Coronavirus cases are not time critical - you suffer for a couple of weeks (according to a friend who has it right now) - emergency evacuation by helicopter is very unlikely to be needed
And why would you risk infecting a helicopter that costs millions and its highly trained crew when a £20k ambulance will do the job just as well?
still I guess the PR folk have to do something....
Perhaps they know more about it than you do?
Islandlad
28th Mar 2020, 10:20
Perhaps they know more about it than you do?
Really? Everyone is making it up as they go along. Do you think 'senior' people have any more idea than the rest of us? If they 'know more' we wouldn't be where we are now.
charliegolf
28th Mar 2020, 12:22
Really? Everyone is making it up as they go along. Do you think 'senior' people have any more idea than the rest of us? If they 'know more' we wouldn't be where we are now.
What is a universal truth, is that anyone 'senior' will never be short of subordinates who are absolutely certain they know more and could easily do better.
CG
ACW418
28th Mar 2020, 12:32
CG,
Until it goes wrong and then you can't find them!
ACW
Islandlad
28th Mar 2020, 12:36
What is a universal truth, is that anyone 'senior' will never be short of subordinates who are absolutely certain they know more and could easily do better.
CG
That's the root of progress. In this case, however,
you are choosing to select sustained, passed down experience, taught and learned, against the current CV-19 novel reality. They are not the same thing. But you made your point; so made mine.
CG,
Until it goes wrong and then you can't find them!
ACW
How true
Success has many fathers - failure is an orphan
Having said all that. Some bugger has to have a go. And as we stand many of those having a go probably know they will very likely be giving their lives for us all. So I salute them as they walk slowly into their future.
GeeRam
28th Mar 2020, 14:19
As I understand it Coronavirus cases are not time critical - you suffer for a couple of weeks (according to a friend who has it right now) - emergency evacuation by helicopter is very unlikely to be needed
And why would you risk infecting a helicopter that costs millions and its highly trained crew when a £20k ambulance will do the job just as well?
I don't expect these are intending to be used for what your thinking, more likely its to facilitate quicker evacuation of those that are to be moved to the large temp facilities being setup around the country for the short time they have left to free up local NHS ICU's for those that are deemed to have a greater chance of recovery.
Radgirl
28th Mar 2020, 17:30
I think we are getting well away from reality. The Nightingale is needed because London is getting the surge. Modelling is an educated guess but suggests a massive influx in London needing this extra capacity. As has been said, patients deteriorate slowly, there is no need for urgent transfer, and the use of aircraft is pure posturing
I am very pleased that the UK is doing something, albeit far too late. It boosts morale to see lots of soldiers moving boxes, although I note the boxes have ordinary surgical masks that offer no protection. Meantime hospitals already getting patients which are full of aerosol-ed virus and where the doctors and nurses are themselves at risk of infection STILL await the promised deliveries of PPE. We have been waiting over a week. We had just one delivery.....of ordinary surgical masks. :ugh: I like many others have been buying up stock from hardware shops etc. Absenteeism due to isolation or actual disease is massive and means we cant even staff the volume of work we normally do. We should be prioritizing protection for the dwindling number of doctors and nurses who have patients now before moving PPE to a building that wont be receiving for days
Islandlad
28th Mar 2020, 17:50
I think we are getting well away from reality. The Nightingale is needed because London is getting the surge. Modelling is an educated guess but suggests a massive influx in London needing this extra capacity. As has been said, patients deteriorate slowly, there is no need for urgent transfer, and the use of aircraft is pure posturing
I am very pleased that the UK is doing something, albeit far too late. It boosts morale to see lots of soldiers moving boxes, although I note the boxes have ordinary surgical masks that offer no protection. Meantime hospitals already getting patients which are full of aerosol-ed virus and where the doctors and nurses are themselves at risk of infection STILL await the promised deliveries of PPE. We have been waiting over a week. We had just one delivery.....of ordinary surgical masks. :ugh: I like many others have been buying up stock from hardware shops etc. Absenteeism due to isolation or actual disease is massive and means we cant even staff the volume of work we normally do. We should be prioritizing protection for the dwindling number of doctors and nurses who have patients now before moving PPE to a building that wont be receiving for days I'm not sure what you or your colleagues or teams do exactly, but,
thank you!
Thank You!!
THANK YOU!!!
Herod
28th Mar 2020, 18:47
Islandlad: I'll second that. This is the NHS we never really believed we had. We were wrong
NutLoose
28th Mar 2020, 20:18
Totally an utterly agree, THANK YOU
oldmansquipper
28th Mar 2020, 20:33
What they said....
Simply put: THANK YOU!
gijoe
28th Mar 2020, 22:53
Perhaps they know more about it than you do?
It would appear to be not that hard to know more about than this pr*ck - and, yes, they do.
JAVELINBOY
28th Mar 2020, 23:26
It was only a couple of weeks ago a pair of Puma Helicopters were in South Wales published in the news by South Wales Police as conducting a joint exercise. Flying around Cardiff and various other locations doing landings here and there. Anyone join the dots up on these goings on?
Islandlad
29th Mar 2020, 07:21
BBC TV Interview Sunday morning live from the Excel London. Specifically to you, your colleagues and teams:
thank you!
Thank You!!
THANK YOU!!!
Can't be said enough!
Treble one
29th Mar 2020, 14:23
They may need to fly critical care patients to other areas, if the ICU beds in London are overwhelmed. The issue with COVID-19 is that the critical care patients can need 2-3 weeks on a ventilator-which means once you are hooked up, then it can be unavailable for that time.
I saw the French shipping ICU patients to Germany yesterday. The Italians were medivacing patients by helicopter to other parts of the country too.
SWBKCB
29th Mar 2020, 16:27
It was only a couple of weeks ago a pair of Puma Helicopters were in South Wales published in the news by South Wales Police as conducting a joint exercise. Flying around Cardiff and various other locations doing landings here and there. Anyone join the dots up on these goings on?
Yes - regular exercises such as this have been going on around our major cities for years.
Islandlad
29th Mar 2020, 16:31
They may need to fly critical care patients to (or from) other areas in places such as the UK Islands and the Isle of Man, the Channel Islands and maybe Gibraltar and diplomats etc from other states.
Maybe.
Downwind.Maddl-Land
30th Mar 2020, 16:47
Out of sheer curiosity, nothing else, have the normal restrictions on operations at LCY been relaxed to allow normally non-approved aircraft/aircrew (ie RAF) to operate there, or has there been a transfer of responsibility of operating at the airport been made from the licence holder to, say, the MoD?
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/londons-nightingale-coronavirus-hospital-to-be-mothballed-hqxpzxtpj
London’s Nightingale coronavirus hospital to be mothballed
London’s Nightingale hospital is to be mothballed, as the NHS announces plans for clinics aimed at rehabilitating coronavirus survivors. Staff have been told that the site will not accept any more patients and will instead be “placed on standby”.
The hospital was set up in the Excel conference centre in east London to provide up to 4,000 additional intensive care beds for Covid-19 patients should a surge of cases overwhelm the capital’s existing facilities. Since its official opening on April 3 it has not needed (https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/coronavirus-empty-beds-at-britains-first-nightingale-hospital-lmz8r6mwp) to treat more than 40 patients at a time. NHS chiefs said that it would remain ready in case of a potential second spike in cases.
They also announced that Headley Court in Surrey, a Ministry of Defence rehabilitation facility during the Iraq war, would become the first NHS Seacole centre. It will provide temporary rehabilitation for patients recovering from Covid-19 as well as those who have been in hospital for routine treatment........
racedo
4th May 2020, 20:49
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/londons-nightingale-coronavirus-hospital-to-be-mothballed-hqxpzxtpj
London’s Nightingale coronavirus hospital to be mothballed
London’s Nightingale hospital is to be mothballed, as the NHS announces plans for clinics aimed at rehabilitating coronavirus survivors. Staff have been told that the site will not accept any more patients and will instead be “placed on standby”.
The hospital was set up in the Excel conference centre in east London to provide up to 4,000 additional intensive care beds for Covid-19 patients should a surge of cases overwhelm the capital’s existing facilities. Since its official opening on April 3 it has not needed (https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/coronavirus-empty-beds-at-britains-first-nightingale-hospital-lmz8r6mwp) to treat more than 40 patients at a time. NHS chiefs said that it would remain ready in case of a potential second spike in cases.
They also announced that Headley Court in Surrey, a Ministry of Defence rehabilitation facility during the Iraq war, would become the first NHS Seacole centre. It will provide temporary rehabilitation for patients recovering from Covid-19 as well as those who have been in hospital for routine treatment........
It was a PR exercise in showing they could do it, ultimately planned for use next winter if needed.
NutLoose
4th May 2020, 22:57
You’re damned if you do and damned if you don’t... It could have been a sh*tstorm of a disaster if they hadn’t put the facility in place, better to have excess beds than insufficient and people dropping like flies. My view is thank God it wasn’t needed and thank God it was available.
Spanish flu 1918-1919, Hong Kong flu 1968-1969., Swine flu 2009 - Second waves were worse than the first.
https://www.history.com/news/spanish-flu-second-wave-resurgence
https://www.britannica.com/event/Hong-Kong-flu-of-1968
http://www.infectioncontroltoday.com/infections/second-wave-h1n1-flu-was-greater-first
Tankertrashnav
5th May 2020, 00:06
You’re damned if you do and damned if you don’t... It could have been a sh*tstorm of a disaster if they hadn’t put the facility in place, better to have excess beds than insufficient and people dropping like flies. My view is thank God it wasn’t needed and thank God it was available.
Seconded wholeheartedly. I am getting sick of "experts" who, with the benefit of hindsight seem to spend their whole time saying what the authorities should or should not have done :*
They also announced that Headley Court in Surrey, a Ministry of Defence rehabilitation facility during the Iraq war, would become the first NHS Seacole centre. It will provide temporary rehabilitation for patients recovering from Covid-19 as well as those who have been in hospital for routine treatment........
On a lighter note. Overheard during a physio session at Headley Court
"Come on sir, more effort - get those knees up"
"I'm sorry corporal, I'm a little stiff from rugby"
"I dont care where you come from sir - get those knees up"!
Meanwhile, on a small Island near France, our local £14m, 180-bed, version is opening imminently.
Apparently the General Hospital is running at 39% occupancy, and the curves here are certainly flattening ... https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/channel-islands/
However, as Nutloose said earlier ... You’re damned if you do and damned if you don’t..
Asturias56
5th May 2020, 16:41
You’re damned if you do and damned if you don’t... It could have been a sh*tstorm of a disaster if they hadn’t put the facility in place, better to have excess beds than insufficient and people dropping like flies. My view is thank God it wasn’t needed and thank God it was available.
Exactly - you can't "hope" things will come right in that situation
champair79
5th May 2020, 16:50
Remember that the temporary hospital facilities give the NHS a buffer so that hospitals can resume normal operations. There will undoubtedly be a rise hospital admissions as well once lockdown restrictions are eased so it’s good we have them in reserve.
Islandlad
21st Jun 2020, 06:08
'RAF Nightingale' closed. London City reopened.
The 26th of March 2020 seems like another country.
Asturias56
21st Jun 2020, 15:19
"It was a PR exercise in showing they could do it, ultimately planned for use next winter if needed"
Racedo - sometimes you really allow your skepticism to go crazy - it was necessary (just like the Chinese hospital built in a week) IN CASE the NHS was overwhelmed. My friends in parts of Italy & Spain tell some awful stories of what it was like when local hospitals came close to collapse. Patients stored in operating theatres, corridors, canteens, garages...................... Sure it cost money but it was a very wise precaution - and having done it once they now know exactly how to do it better, faster, cheaper next time