Covid-19: Belfast Nightingale Hospital to be expanded

The Nightingale was designed to care for Covid-19 patients who needed ventilation

Northern Ireland's Nightingale Hospital - based at the in the tower block at Belfast City Hospital - is set to be expanded, BBC News NI can reveal.

The plan is to increase the number of intensive care beds from 24 to 32, the Department of Health has confirmed.

At present 20 Covid-19 patients are receiving intensive care at the facility and four beds are available.

On Wednesday, the Department of Health reported a further 13 coronavirus-related deaths in Northern Ireland.

The department's death toll is 1,397.

Nine of those deaths were within the past 24 hours.

There have also been 1,985 new positive cases of coronavirus diagnosed.

Hospitals at full capacity

There are 126 nurses allocated to provide round-the-clock one-to-one nursing cover for all 24 beds.

The Nightingale was re-established as a regional facility by the Health Minister Robin Swann in October due to Covid-related pressures on the system.

BBC News NI can also reveal plans to increase the number of ward beds from 21 to 36.

Prof Ian Young briefed MLAs with the latest information on the spread of coronavirus

Those wards will cater for patients who are seriously ill with Covid-19 but who may not require intensive care.

According to the Department of Health, all six of Northern Ireland's main hospitals are operating at full capacity or beyond.

'In-patients numbers set to rise'

Northern Ireland's chief scientific adviser Prof Ian Young said the rising number of coronavirus cases can be attributed to increased contacts rather than the new variant of the virus.

Speaking to MLAs on Stormont's Health Committee, he said the effect of the new variant on the number of cases was "likely to be relatively small" at present.

He said that the two-week relaxation of restrictions and inter-generational mixing at Christmas has been the most significant factor.

"At the moment our best judgement is that the new variant is likely to be present only as a relatively small minority of cases," he said.

He said the effects of tighter restrictions imposed in Northern Ireland on 26 December were expected to be seen by the end of this week but the number of hospital in-patients would continue to increase and were likely to peak sometime during the last two weeks of this month.

In the Republic of Ireland there have been 17 further coronavirus-related deaths and 7,836 new cases.

The chief executive of the Irish Health Service Executive said there are 921 people with Covid-19 in Irish hospitals, the highest number since the start of the pandemic.