EasyJet and Virgin among companies asking staff to retrain for service in hospitals

The NHS will draw on airline cabin crews to help staff the new Nightingale hospitals that are being constructed to cope with the wave of patients expected to need critical care as the coronavirus outbreak unfolds.

EasyJet has written to 9,000 UK-based staff, of whom 4,000 are trained in CPR, to invite them to volunteer for further training before helping out at the critical care field hospitals in London, Birmingham and Manchester.