A hospital designed to specifically treat coronavirus patients from North Somerset will open this weekend.

Weston Mercury: NHS Nightingale Hospital Bristol will open this weekend. Picture: Jane HarrisNHS Nightingale Hospital Bristol will open this weekend. Picture: Jane Harris (Image: Archant)

NHS Nightingale Hospital Bristol is part of the national effort to respond to the coronavirus health emergency.

It will provide 300 additional beds if local services need them during the peak of the outbreak.

The hospital has been created within the University of the West of England (UWE) Bristol campus and will be run by North Bristol NHS Trust.

NHS Nightingale Hospital Bristol will be ready to receive its first patients, if required, from Saturday and Sunday, opening a small number of beds in the first instance.

Over time it will expand to accommodate 300 patients if this is required.

Nightingale hospitals are critical care temporary hospitals set up by NHS England as part of the response to the coronavirus epidemic in England.

The hospital is designed to provide the highest level of specialist care for critically ill coronavirus patients in the South West area critical care network.

It is one part of a network approach to the management of critical care services across Gloucestershire, Bristol, North Somerset, Bath, North East Somerset, Wiltshire, Somerset and South Gloucestershire.

The NHS Nightingale Hospital Bristol provides the region with an additional dedicated ventilator facility to help manage any additional capacity needed for critically ill coronavirus patients.

A degree of flexibility has been built into the planning so that as the clinical picture and patient requirements evolve, the hospital will be able to adapt accordingly.

Staff for the hospital are being drawn from within the NHS and from across a range of organisations and Glenside Campus at UWE Bristol is delivering frontline staff training.

The development and preparation for frontline staff training has been a collaborative effort between UWE Bristol and colleagues from the NHS.

The clinical simulation spaces at the Glenside Campus are equipped to deliver frontline training to 1,000 volunteers over the coming weeks.