Tees Valley Mayor Ben Houchen has called for an empty supermarket building in Middlesbrough to be considered as a facility for a temporary hospital in the Tees Valley to help tackle the coronavirus pandemic.
The vacant supermarket building has laid empty for five years after Sainsbury’s pulled out of a move in 2015 from its current home in the town’s Wilson Street, leaving the building without a tenant.
Although plans remain in the pipeline to split the building into smaller units, the facility with 80,000 sq ft of space remains empty.
Mayor Houchen has sent an official letter to Cleveland Police Chief Constable Richard Lewis, in his role as Chairman of Gold Command for the response towards the coronavirus pandemic, to see if the facility would be a suitable location for a temporary hospital in Teesside.
The letter comes after the Government announced yesterday two new temporary hospitals would be set up in Birmingham and Manchester to help the NHS cope with the coronavirus pandemic.
The new hospitals at Birmingham’s NEC and Manchester conference centre would be used alongside a facility at London’s ExCel centre, known as NHS Nightingale, which will be available to use from next week.
Mayor Houchen has already offered the use of the St George Hotel at Teesside International Airport as a location for a temporary medical facility.
Mayor Houchen said: “The Government has implemented its strict guidelines around social distancing in an effort to slow the spread of the virus and alleviate the strain on our NHS workers and out amazing health workers, however it is only right that plans are put in place for the scenario that these steps do not contain the spread of the virus across Teesside, Darlington and Hartlepool.
“The empty supermarket building located in Middlehaven, Middlesbrough has a great deal of extra capacity which potentially could provide a ready built solution should the virus spread more quickly than hoped. That is why I have asked for this to be looked into as a potential solution.
“The utilisation of such a facility would increase capacity, relieve pressure locally, and help to save lives. We should be doing everything we can to help, and if this facility is deemed a suitable location, we should look into making it available to those who may sadly need it.
“Our absolute priority is to protect life and do all we can to support the most vulnerable in our society, and I will continue to do everything I can and look into every possibility to make sure we all get through this very difficult time for everyone.”
