Coronavirus: Sinn Fein reluctantly accepts Army field hospital role

Although Sinn Fein has insisted that it is not interested in tribal politics at this time, senior party figures have been evasive about whether they would accept military assistance to build a field hospital – despite Northern Ireland desperately needing more hospital beds.

At yesterday’s press conference at Stormont, Deputy First Minister Michelle O’Neill initially avoided answering the question but, when pressed by the News Letter, she then said: “If we need a field hospital, then we need a field hospital.”

Ms O’Neill insisted that such a hospital would be an NHS hospital rather than a military hospital, which would be in line with the 4,000-bed Nightingale Hospital in London which soldiers built in a week but which will be run by the NHS.

First Minister Arlene Foster also made clear that she will not stand in the way of any practical cooperation with the Republic of Ireland which can help to save lives.

Yesterday two more people died from Covid-19 in Northern Ireland and the Department of Health said that it is expecting the major surge to come some time between April 6 and April 20.

The department also released modelling showing that there could be 3,000 deaths in a 20-week period. However, that is potentially only the beginning.

Experts are concerned at the prospect of a second wave of the virus later this year.

The Department of Health’s Chief Scientific Officer, Prof Ian Young, said that “once you relax restrictions it is almost inevitable that there will be a recurrence of the virus and that will occur until a substantial proportion of the population have immunity against it, either as a result of having suffered the virus infection and recovered or as a consequence of having received a vaccine which gives them immunity”.

Mrs Foster confirmed that the Eikon Centre at the site of the former Maze prison would be “our Nightingale Hospital” to prepare for a second wave later in the year.

The News Letter put to Mrs Foster that in the Republic the Irish army has been involved in setting up testing centres and expanding capacity, and an order for protective equipment had been made through Dublin.

When asked if she would not stand in the way of any practical cooperation with the Republic which could save lives, Mrs Foster said: “Let me say very clearly, and as categorically as I can – I will not stand in the way of any practical cooperation between ourselves and the Republic of Ireland.

“In fact, I have been really very heartened by the practical cooperation that is taking place on a day by day basis ... I want to be very clear about this: There is absolutely nothing standing in the way of cooperation.”

The Army has been critical in turning the ExCel Centre in London into the Nightingale Hospital for the NHS.

When Ms O’Neill was asked if she could categorically say that she would not stand in the way of the Army being used to increase NHS capacity in Northern Ireland by constructing a field hospital she initially did not address the question at all and instead admonished the News Letter, saying that journalists should not present disagreements between herself and Mrs Foster as “division”.

She said that journalists should “help us by emphasising where we have unity”.

When pressed to answer the question about whether she would seek to block the Army helping the NHS, she then said: “If we need a field hospital, then we need a field hospital.

“A field hospital is a hospital that is not in a hospital building and I think that’s something that we’re planning for. It will also – let me be very clear about this – be a health and social care hospital, not an Army hospital ... we need to do what’s right by our people in this period of time.”

Responding to those commnets, UUP leader Steve Aiken said: “At this time of international crisis we need co-operation; support from any quarter, from our friends in Dublin or from our great armed forces is to be welcomed. We are all in this together; Covid has no borders.”

Other disagreements between Mrs Foster and Ms O’Neill were apparent at yesterday’s press conference. Mrs Foster made clear that she was happy to take the advice of Northern Ireland’s Chief Medical Officer, Dr Michael McBride.

But Ms O’Neill said: “I follow the World Health Organisation’s advice, I follow the European Centre for Disease Control’s advice ... I am uncomfortable that we are following a system that is at variance with the World Health Organisation’s advice and the ECDC’s advice. But I’ll just continue to make that point in the Executive.”