A WINCHESTER hotel is providing accommodation for patients without coronavirus to free up care beds.

The Holiday Inn in Telegraph Way is taking patients in a move owners InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) says is “contributing to the recovery effort”.

It will only put up patients who are not suffering from Covid-19 symptoms, but it is not known how many beds have been offered in the 141-room hotel.

The move has come following talks with the NHS, including Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, which runs the Royal Hampshire County Hospital - just 3.7miles away from the Holiday Inn.

An IHG spokesperson: “The current situation is unprecedented and moving at pace, and people’s health and wellbeing must be the top priority. We are working closely with governments, local authorities and individual organisations, which includes our hotels contributing to the recovery effort where the situation requires.

“We can confirm Holiday Inn Winchester is supporting the NHS with accommodation for patients who do not have Covid-19.”

However, Hampshire Hospitals said that the NHS is still making “final decisions regarding which sites will be used” and did not confirm whether the Holiday Inn was taking patients.

An NHS spokesperson said: “The NHS across Hampshire and the Isle of Wight is working with its partners to make sure we are as prepared as possible for any increase in demand for services, and any need to change the way we work as a result of the current Covid-19 national emergency.

“A huge amount of planning and preparation is taking place, seven days a week, to ensure we are as ready as we can be to meet the challenges we are facing. This preparation involves not just securing extra capacity for patients who have Covid-19, but also finding new ways of looking after patients with other conditions and illnesses who will still need care.

“Across the county we are starting to ramp up our response, and this will continue over the coming weeks. People may already have noticed some work underway at a number of sites across Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, to ensure that extra capacity is ready when we need it. Final decisions regarding which sites will be used, when, and for which groups of patients are yet to be concluded but we will communicate those details as soon as we are able to do so.”

So far, NHS England has announced the opening of field hospitals across the country in the coming weeks, with sites planned in Birmingham, Manchester, Bristol, Harrogate, Cardiff, Belfast and Glasgow.

The NHS Nightingale hospital was opened on Friday which turned the ExCeL centre into a 4,000-bed field hospital.