Cambridge University Hospitals Trust is considering building new temporary facilities adjacent to Addenbrooke’s hospital, to provide 120 extra bed spaces to accommodate the potential demand from COVID-19 patients.

Preliminary work has already begun on the Addenbrooke’s site to lay hard standing just south of the hospital’s new multi-storey car park.

Due to the urgency of the plans, the university trust, which runs Addenbrooke’s, will not seek the usual planning permissions. City and county Councillors who represent Queen Edith’s, the hospital’s consistency, have expressed their support for the new development.

Speaking for the group, County Cllr. Amanda Taylor said that the current situation is a global emergency and in times like these, “Everyone understands and supports Addenbrooke’s in responding as it judges right in order to keep on providing treatment and saving lives.

“Addenbrooke’s is on the front line and under great pressure. Patients and staff must be given the facilities they need to fight off the pandemic. There should be no question of the council taking enforcement action in these circumstances.”

City Cllr. George Pippas added, “It remains important the creation of temporary facilities without planning permission like this doesn’t pre-empt the way the site is used in the longer run.

“In due course that must still be subject to thorough planning processes, applying all the normal criteria, with full opportunity for public involvement.”

Seven patients have now died at Addenbrooke’s Hospital after testing positive for COVID-19. As of Friday, the hospital had 79 patients with confirmed cases of the virus, and a further 35 patients awaiting test results.

However, a new rapid test, which can diagnose the virus in under 90 minutes, has been developed by Diagnostics for the Real World, a Cambridge university research company.

The portable ‘SAMBA II’ machines have been deployed at Addenbrooke’s ahead of being launched in hospitals nationwide.

The number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 surpassed 1 million worldwide last week. The Prime Minister Boris Johnson was taken to a London hospital on Sunday evening “for a series of routine tests” after his symptoms, which are understood to include a high temperature, persisted.