NHS Louisa Jordan hospital to receive first patients in July

The emergency hospital set up in Glasgow will receive its first patients in July as the NHS recovers from the early stages of the coronavirus pandemic.

NHS Louisa Jordan was built at the Scottish Events Campus (SEC) in April but has not been needed for Covid-19 patients.

It will now be used to help the NHS resume normal services by hosting some orthopaedic outpatient consultations.

The hospital will also be used for staff training, teaching and examinations as it provides enough space for social distancing.

If successful, it could provide a wider range of services that were delayed due to the pandemic.

Set-up costs for the hospital, which has capacity to treat an initial 300 patients, were around £38m.

Health secretary Jeane Freeman said: “As we begin to resume some paused NHS services safely, carefully and in a series of stages, this national hospital will play an important role in helping our NHS recover by providing planned healthcare for non-Covid outpatients.

“It will also ensure the sustainability of our NHS workforce as the clinical setting, alongside the ability to maintain physical distancing, will allow undergraduates and postgraduates to carry out training, teaching and examinations, and support training for the wider health and social care workforce in Scotland.

“By continuing to follow the clear public health advice, we can continue to suppress this virus in Scotland.”

The hospital is named after a Glasgow-born nurse who died in Serbia in 1915 while serving with the Scottish Women’s Hospitals for Foreign Services.

Chief nursing officer Fiona McQueen said: “The NHS Louisa Jordan has not been required to treat Covid-19 patients as we have been able to retain capacity in NHS Scotland thanks to our continued collective effort to tackle this pandemic.

“Should it be required, all training and planned non-Covid healthcare will be stopped and the hospital will be ready to accept Covid-19 patients at a few days’ notice.”