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NHS Nightingale Hospital and IK Brunel #buildingpassions #beatthevirus #NHS (1 April 2020)
I have visited the Crimea twice (prior to the illegal occupation by Russia) and seen the magnificent Panorama of the siege of Sevastopol. I've also been to the small port of Balaklava, better known for the woollen headgear named after it, where the British were based during that war. I haven't yet been to the site of another temporary hospital, which served the needs of the ill and wounded many miles away on the other side of the Black Sea.
The National Health Service in the UK is opening a new emergency hospital today in London to handle the growing number of COVID-19 cases - it's called the NHS Nightingale Hospital after the famous Victorian nurse with her lamp, a symbol of the Crimean War which had so many military casualties, many from diseases spread amongst the besiegers of Sevastopol.
Isambard Kingdom Brunel was asked by his brother-in-law Sir Benjamin Hawes in the War Office to design a prefabricated hospital in Turkey - supposedly to placate Florence Nightingale who was pressing Hawes for more support. This he did rapidly and it was shipped out to Renkioi in the Dardanelles and assembled there.
Medical experts have since said that the unique modular design had an influence on the development of all hospitals subsequently. You can read more about the project at Brunel's SS Great Britain website - the vast ship was used to transport troops to the Crimea. For more on Brunel read my book 'Building Passions' which from today is available for only £2.00 as an e-book in the UK for all April (different prices for other countries covered).
Temporary or emergency hospitals have been pivotal in helping society to deal with major crises such as viruses and wars. When I worked at the Institution of Structural Engineers we developed a learning resource for students based on a military engineer's rapid construction of an Ebola hospital in Africa.
Stay safe!