Don’t send rainbow pictures to Nightingale hospital, NHS says

Image caption

Helena from Hampshire had prepared her rainbow picture

The NHS has asked people to stop posting rainbow pictures to the new Nightingale hospital in London after a social media request went viral.

The BBC was contacted by a nurse who said she had started the campaign because she wanted to create “a sign of hope” for patients and staff.

However, in a Facebook post, NHS Nightingale asked people to share their artwork “digitally”.

It said the Facebook account set up to promote the rainbow images was “fake”.

In an email to the BBC, the staff nurse, who said she was based in Birmingham, wrote that she had “organised a small team” to help her coordinate the artwork and hoped to get enough to share with other temporary hospitals as well, once they are set up.

She asked for pictures to be laminated before they were sent in the post.

Hundreds of parents took part, asking their children to draw rainbow-themed pictures, laminating them and sending them in.

However the NHS has asked people to share them online instead, using #RainbowsForNightingale.

The Nightingale hospital has been created in the ExCeL exhibition centre in East London and is expected to become operational by the end of the week. It will contain 4,000 beds.

Image caption

Children have also been creating rainbows for their own homes



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