England's first NHS coronavirus recovery hospital named after pioneering nurse opens in Surrey

The hospital, named after Mary Seacole, officially opened on Monday
Daniel Elkeles
Imogen Braddick4 May 2020

A hospital set up to care for people recovering from Covid-19 will be named after the pioneering nurse Mary Seacole to pay tribute to nurses on the frontline of the coronavirus pandemic.

The NHS Seacole Centre, the first of its kind in England, will be based at the NHS Headley Court Hospital in Leatherhead, Surrey, and has up to 300 inpatient beds.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock and chief nursing officer for England Ruth May virtually opened the new facility on Monday.

Work has been ongoing in Leatherhead over the last month to transform a disused military hospital into the new inpatient rehabilitation facility.

Matt Hancock virtually opened the hospital on Monday
Daniel Elkeles

It is hoped the hospital will free up capacity in other nearby hospitals for both non-Covid patients and the urgent care of people with the coronavirus, the NHS said.​

Ms Seacole, who became known as Mother Seacole, was a Jamaican-born nurse who funded her own trip to the Crimea where she established a hospital to provide support for officers wounded in the Crimean War.

Sir Simon Stevens, NHS chief executive, said: “As well as providing important care in its own right, this new service – by recalling the pioneering work of Mary Seacole – rightly pays tribute to our BAME nurses and other staff at the forefront of the extraordinary NHS response to this terrible Covid-19 pandemic.

“It also serves as a timely reminder that it is their contribution over the past seven decades that has been a foundation for the very success and continuation of the NHS itself.

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“I fully expect that this will be just the first of a number of Seacole services that will now begin to be established across the country as the NHS moves through the peak of inpatient coronavirus care and the need for community health and rehabilitative services grows.”

Mr Hancock said NHS Seacole wll free up "crucial extra capacity".

“There can be no more fitting tribute to the extraordinary work of Mary Seacole than the compassion and dedication of our health and social care staff working on the frontline of this pandemic today," he said.

"NHS Seacole will not only offer a vital space for recovery and rehabilitation, but will also free up crucial extra capacity so everybody who needs care can receive it over the coming months.”

Ms May said naming the site after Mary Seacole was a "wonderful testament" to nurses and healthcare workers from diverse backgrounds who make up the NHS.

“Mary Seacole made an extraordinary, long-term contribution to community healthcare and so it is fitting that such an important service is honouring her name," she said.

“It’s also a wonderful testament to so many nurses and healthcare workers from diverse backgrounds and from different countries who make up our NHS – I am extremely proud of their continued dedication to step up these services for patient during the greatest challenge in our history.”

Mary Seacole Trust chairman, Trevor Sterling, added: “Naming the hospital at Headley Court the NHS Seacole Centre symbolises the contribution made by so many nurses and other healthcare workers, from all different backgrounds and from all around the world, who make up our wonderful NHS.

"We thank all healthcare staff for their amazing contribution to our communities.”

It comes as London's Nightingale hospital will be put “on standby” within days as a result of the capital passing the peak of coronavirus cases.

Staff at the hospital, at the ExCeL conference centre in Docklands, received the news today as they were thanked for their efforts.

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