A sports hall turned into a £4 million state-of-the-art Covid hospital in Wales has been dismantled without treating a single patient – and a leaking pipe destroyed the floor, MailOnline can reveal.
The 350-bed Nightingale hospital was built at Llandarcy Academy of Sport near Swansea, South Wales, in April this year to help deal with rising coronavirus infections.
Not a single patient was admitted in six months and so it was decommissioned in September – shortly before the number of Covid cases soared once again and non-urgent care in the area was suspended to help the NHS cope with the virus.
As workmen took the field hospital apart, they discovered a new water system had leaked, ruining the wooden flooring.
The cost to the tax-payer of repairing and replacing the floor is expected to reach £75,000 and all sporting activities have been suspended until next year while the work is carried out, according to Simon Davies from the Swansea Bay University Health Board.
An insider at the academy said: ‘It’s been a nightmare. The wooden floor at the main sports hall was totally destroyed by a leak in the system that had been installed to provide water for the medical equipment and toilets.
‘The sodden flooring has had to be taken up and a new one is being laid down, but it has taken ages and it is still not finished.
‘I feel sorry for the youngsters who are unable to use the facilities now. The irony is that the scientists keep telling us that if we keep fit, we’ve a better chance of protecting ourselves against this disease.’
The academy is normally used by thousands of elite sportsmen and women for football, rugby, cricket and athletics, but is also open to the public.
Among those affected by the year-long closure is local rugby side the Ospreys, who use it as their training HQ.
The Swansea club has been forced to find an alternative base in the city until at least the start of the 2021/22 season, a club spokesperson said.
In April, managing director Andrew Millward said the club was ‘very happy’ to play its part in fighting Covid: ‘Allowing our training base at Llandarcy to be used in this way is the least we could do as we all come to terms with dealing with this virus at this time.’
Wales is currently seeing a significant rise in coronavirus infections, prompting First Minister Mark Drakeford, of Labour, to say the NHS was ‘in danger of becoming the National Coronavirus Service’.
Earlier this week, Health Minister Vaughan Gething confirmed that Swansea Bay University Health Board, which covers Swansea and Neath Port Talbot, has suspended non-urgent operations and care due to the rise in Covid cases.
It follows nearby Aneurin Bevan UHB’s decision a day earlier to suspend non-urgent care.
Mr Gething said: ‘Health boards are making difficult decisions to pause some normal services to focus on winter and pandemic pressures. This will help in the difficult days and weeks ahead.’
Nic North