Exeter Nightingale Hospital can stay

No one objected to planning application

You have to act fast in a crisis.

So when projections early in 2020 showed the the NHS could be overwhelmed by covid cases, NHS Nightingale Hospitals popped up around the country. In the south west, at first one was planned at Westpoint Arena. But when it became clear that demand was not going to be as high as initially predicated, a former DIY store at Sowton, Exeter, was converted.

But it didn't have planning permission.

That's now been rectified. Whilst it would not normally be part of planning regulations to turn a store previously selling kitchens and sofas into hospital wards, needs must. It would have been a brave councillor or officer who turned down the NHS as the pandemic begins its resurgence.

NHS Nightingale Hospital Exeter has five wards, each with 24 beds. With the number of people in the south west needing to stay in hospital with covid-19 staying low, the hospital now cares for patients needing other treatments, particularly cancer testing.

The £23m hospital has been given a new injection of cash to help to clear the backlog of seriously ill people caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

While some forms of development, including ‘the erection of a hospital building’ do not need planning permission, because the works involved development within five metres of a boundary of other buildings, it had that hoop to jump, but hadn't done so before conversion of the DIY store began. Exeter City Council planning officers have now granted planning permission.

It's only temporary though, and the hospital must stop operations, if you'll excuse the pun, by 30 September 2022. Planners say the site is unsuitable for permanent hospital use.

Modular buildings erected around the hospital building for a reception area, pharmacy, kitchen space, changing rooms, lockers, showers and other facilities are part of the approved plans.

No one had objected to the plans.