Most Nightingale hospitals will not be built for weeks amid questions over whether they will be used at all.

       NHS England announced eight “surge hubs” will be set up at hospitals across the country in preparation for a potential wave of omicron admissions.

       The temporary structures will house around 100 patients and will be stood up if hospitalisations outstrip current capacity.

       Construction on the Nightingale hub at St George’s Hospital, London, began on Thursday but it is not expected to be handed over until early January.

       It is understood the seven other sites announced this week, which include Solihull Hospital, University Hospitals Birmingham, University Hospitals Leicester and William Harvey Hospital, Ashford, will not be completed until mid-January.

       Scaffolding has been delivered to the Ashford site, while building work is expected to get underway in Lister Hospital, Stevenage, next week.

       However, health chiefs have stressed that hospitals will not use these hubs until they’ve exhausted current surge capacity.

       If admissions surge to levels seen last January, hospitals would trigger their surge capacity plans, resulting in delaying non-essential elective surgery and re-purposing operating theatres and anaesthetic areas for critical Covid care, if needed.

       ‘No regrets insurance policy’

       "This is a no regrets insurance policy,” Chris Hopson, the CEO of NHS Providers, told The Telegraph.

       Mr Hopson said latest data show vaccines are working as there are “significantly lower numbers” of older patients in critical care compared to January 2021.

       “We're obviously hoping that's going to continue, but there's no guarantee of that and that's precisely why the NHS is making preparations like creating the eight new hospital super surge hubs,” he said.

       All NHS trusts have been asked to look at what buildings and available space they can utilise for converting into a Nightingale hub.

       Patients admitted to the sites will be those who need low level care, but it’s understood the exact makeup of each site will only be determined once it’s stood up.

       The hubs will be staffed by a mix of clinical, non-clinical and volunteer staff.

       In 2021, seven Nightingale Hospitals were set up in conference halls and arenas across England as temporary sites to treat Covid patients and provide large-scale care.

       The centres, which cost around ￡530 million, did not admit many patients and were criticised as being poorly located and understaffed.

       The Telegraph revealed in December 2020 that the Excel Centre Nightingale, in London, was dismantled and stripped of its beds and ventilators at the height of the second wave.