AEG has made London’s O2 Arena available to the NHS for the training of additional staff required at the new Nightingale hospital in the Excel centre.
The venue’s owner has handed the concert venue over to the NHS until the end of June in order to assist with the growing number of staff required to tackle the coronavirus outbreak.
The staff trained will go on to work at the NHS Nightingale field hospital at ExCel London. The NHS will be using this as an educational training facility to prepare staff and no patients will be treated on site.
The news comes as O2 recently installed additional temporary network capacity at the ExCel centre in London and Harrogate Nightingale hospital and works with the NHS Trusts to assess mobile connectivity in current and proposed hospitals across the country.
In addition, O2 is continuing to provide support for front line workers from helping a number of Blue Light services increase their data and call capacity, to monitoring critical key sites to help ensure network resilience during this period.
As demand for mobile connectivity continues, usage patterns continue to evolve. O2’s network continues to carry high levels of voice traffic with data usage patterns also changing from general peaks during football matches to moments such as Thursday nights as the country unites to Clap For Carers in support of the NHS.
Mark Evans, CEO, O2 said;
“Mobile connectivity is more important than ever before and we’re continuing to work hard to keep the country connected. We’ve seen the highest volume of voice traffic ever carried on our network and we know how important those conversations are. From providing additional capacity for the NHS, to working with our partners to utilise venues such as The O2, we’re committed to giving customers and key workers the network they need to keep in contact with those closest to them.”
The O2 will not be charging the NHS a hire fee for the use of the venue. and any costs incurred by the venue to provide services required by the NHS are being passed on at cost. The O2 will not profit from the NHS’s use of the venue in any way.
