A package of support measures - including what has been described as psychological PPE - developed for London's temporary COVID-19 hospital could provide "a blueprint" for support to be offered to healthcare workers in the future, CGTN Europe's Razor has been told.

Neil Greenberg, an occupational psychiatrist at King's College London, was brought in to help staff at the facility set up at the Excel conference center, which was designed to treat up to 4,000 COVID-19 cases if required.

He explained that the crisis was not only taking a toll on the general public but also affecting those at the frontline fighting the virus.

Healthcare professionals have been working day and night for weeks trying to save thousands of patients from the killer disease. Long hours, which often involve highly stressful situations and frequent fatalities, can have significant psychological impact.

The shortage of personal protective equipment, the fear of carrying the virus back home and hearing news of colleagues succumbing to coronavirus adds to the trauma.

"Some of them do get affected and they do unfortunately develop mental health conditions like PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder)," said Greenberg, who also pointed to what he calls 'moral injury'.

"That's the injury that results from not being able to do the right thing when you wanted to. Maybe you didn't have the right safety equipment; maybe you didn't have the right number of staff or the right training. Maybe there were too many patients at one time."

He warned such situations might trigger a range of strong emotions like shame or guilt, even anger.

Greenberg proposed a "multi-stage level of support" to help health workers cope with the pandemic and prepare for a potential second wave, should it come.

The Nightingale plan involved checking with volunteers that they understood the implications of the job for them and their home life and then, Greenberg said: "Helping them develop some active coping skills, which we called psychological PPE, as a way of just giving it a name."

The next stage involved a "buddy" scheme, so that staff could help each other out, as well as a team of carers with some mental health training also being around and available to chat with staff between shifts, or during breaks.

Greenberg says this step was taken because the lockdown means colleagues miss the usual chance to "kind of decompress from a shift by maybe having a glass of wine or sitting round and chatting to people in a social setting."

"What we've done with the Nightingale plan is actually, I think, to provide a blueprint for how we can support healthcare workers doing this incredible work, going forward in the future," Greenberg said.

"And what we think is really important at the moment is about what happens during this recovery phase, because it's not about just sustaining people at the frontline to keep going, which is important. It's also about making sure that we bring them back and help them reset so they can both get back to normal and also, if there is a second wave, then they're ready to go again," he added.

The Excel was turned into a COVID-19 speciality hospital as the UK reeled from the pandemic. The NHS Nightingale in east London was equal to 10 district general hospitals with more than 80 wards, each containing 42 beds. It was inaugurated by Prince Charles on 3 April and was designed to provide capacity if London's existing hospitals were unable to cope with the number of cases.

After treating only a few dozen patients, the facility has now been put into 'hibernation' so that it can be brought into operation in case of a second wave.

There are four other Nightingales in Manchester, Birmingham, Bristol and Harrogate. All are slated to be wound down.

Check out The Pandemic Playbook, CGTN Europe's major investigation into the lessons learned from COVID-19