Bristol’s Nightingale hospital will provide “another layer of armour” to the NHS as it copes with the coronavirus pandemic, the Health Secretary has said. The facility, based at the University of the West of England’s Frenchay Campus, was opened by the Earl of Wessex in a virtual ceremony on Monday afternoon. It will provide up to 300 intensive care beds for coronavirus patients – six times the intensive care capacity of a large hospital in the South West.