Across England, health chiefs are leaving no stone unturned in their search for ways to reduce the elective backlog.
While six of the seven temporary hospitals were closed at the end of the winter wave of covid-19 in April, the Devon ICS chipped in to keep the Exeter Nightingale alive.
HSJ understands all the NHS providers in Devon helped Royal Devon and Exeter Foundation Trust secure the facility – situated on an industrial estate outside Exeter – with the support of NHS England, which had coughed up the construction costs at the outbreak of the pandemic.
NHSE also helpfully selected Devon ICS as an “accelerator site” for its elective recovery programme, meaning the ICS received several millions of pounds in extra funds to tackle the challenge ahead.