Covid-19: First quarantine site at Milton Keynes gave team 'head start'

Kents Hill Park conference centre in Milton Keynes took in evacuees from the coronavirus-hit city of Wuhan a year ago

The team behind the UK's first coronavirus quarantine centre, which hosted evacuees from Wuhan a year ago, said it gave them a "head start" on learning how to deal with the virus.

Expatriates from the virus epicentre in China spent 14 days at Kents Hill Park conference centre in Milton Keynes.

The centre was set up with two days' notice.

Sam Donohue, deputy chief nurse at Milton Keynes University Hospital, said it was "like a military operation".

"We had two days to do what we needed to do to bring these people safely home," Ms Donohue said.

"The people at the middle of this were probably terrified.

"Logistically it was like a military operation.

"It was exhilarating and something I'll never forget but I hope to never go through again either."

NHS staff operated the Kents Hill Park centre in Milton Keynes when it was a coronavirus quarantine centre a year ago

Ian Reckless, medical director at Milton Keynes University Hospital, said the preparation and running of the site went "incredibly smoothly".

"It was quite a challenge at the time and we recognised we were doing something extraordinary," he said.

"It gave us an idea of what it might look like when the virus hit our shores.

"At that point in time we had a bit of a head start thinking about how we would bring a patient with coronavirus to the hospital if we needed to."

Ian Reckless, medical director at Milton Keynes University Hospital, said the team had an early experience of coronavirus

None of those evacuated to the conference centre tested positive for coronavirus.

But the second patient to die with the virus in the UK did so at Milton Keynes Hospital.

"Our experience of coronavirus in Milton Keynes got going very quickly," Mr Reckless said.

Up to 8 February there have been 414 Covid-19 deaths registered at Milton Keynes University Hospital.

The hospital's chief executive Prof Joe Harrison said he was now "optimistic" about the future of the pandemic

Nicky Burns Muir, the chief nurse at Milton Keynes University Hospital, said it was not until staff left the quarantine centre that "things started to ramp up" with coronavirus.

But she said the vaccination rollout had brought a "sense of hope" to hospital staff.

The hospital's chief executive Prof Joe Harrison said it was starting to see a reduction in the number of coronavirus patients after a challenging few months.

"I'm quite optimistic about the future and I think this has shown us just how great our NHS can be, " he said.