It has been revealed that the Nightingale hospital in Bristol cost the NHS more than £26 million, despite having never treated a coronavirus patient.

Set up in less than three weeks in April 2020 to provide up to 300 intensive care beds at the University of the West of England's (UWE) Frenchay campus, the hospital was instead used for the assessments and treatments of more than 7,000 non-coronavirus patients before it closed on 31 March.

While the hospital had capacity for 300 intensive care beds, it also had space to treat up to 1,000 people in total.

The initial cost to set up the Nightingale hospital in Bristol stands at just short of £16 million, with the monthly running costs reaching approximately £1 million.

Seven Nightingale hospitals were built in England, including the 4,000-bed facility at London's ExCel centre. That treated 20 patients during the first wave of the pandemic. It reopened in January and was used to treat non-coronavirus patients to free up beds for a surge in coronavirus cases and other seriously ill people.