Last checked at 
(Recasts with details from Health Service Journal report)
By Alistair Smout and Estelle Shirbon
LONDON, Jan 7 (Reuters) - A field hospital in London will be
used if necessary to relieve pressure on other hospitals in the
city, the British health minister said on Thursday after leaked
official documents suggested London risked running out of beds
within two weeks.
Projections leaked to the Health Service Journal showed that
even if the number of COVID-19 patients increased at the lowest
rate considered likely, London hospitals would be short of
nearly 2,000 acute and intensive beds by Jan. 19.
Asked about the projections, Health Secretary Matt Hancock
said he was concerned about the pressures on the National Health
Service (NHS) and the government was putting extra resources
into the parts of the country under the most significant strain.
"For instance in London, (we're) making sure that the
Nightingale hospital is on standby and there, if needed. And if
it is needed, of course, then it will be used," he said,
referring to a field hospital that was set up at the start of
the pandemic.
England began a new national lockdown on Tuesday, with
schools closed and citizens under orders to stay at home, as the
government sought to contain a surge in infections, partly
driven by a highly contagious new coronavirus variant.
On Wednesday, the daily number of deaths from COVID-19
across the United Kingdom surpassed 1,000 for the first time
since April. The country's total COVID-19 death toll since the
start of the pandemic is over 77,300, the highest in Europe.
London and the southeast of England have been the areas
worst-hit by the new variant.
The Nightingale hospital, based at the ExCel conference
centre in east London, was originally set up for COVID-19
critical care, but only 51 patients were treated there before it
was mothballed in May.
The British Medical Journal reported that it was being
repurposed to take non-COVID patients recovering from operations
and procedures, in order to relieve the unprecedented demand for
beds elsewhere.
(Reporting by Alistair Smout and Estelle Shirbon, editing by
Elizabeth Piper)
