Temporary coronavirus hospital hasn't been needed yet

Temporary hospital NHS Louisa Jordan has not yet admitted any patients since the beginning of the coronavirus outbreak.

The emergency hospital at the Scottish Events Campus in Glasgow has been ready since April 20, with an initial capacity for 300 patients, having been built in less than three weeks.

However, Nicola Sturgeon confirmed the £43m facility has so far not been needed during the pandemic.

The First Minister said it played an important contingency role in the event that other NHS hospitals become overwhelmed with Covid-19 cases.

“Hindsight will always be a very valuable thing to have,” she said.

“We haven’t had to use NHS Louisa Jordan to treat patients so far and do you know what? I’m absolutely delighted about that.”

Sturgeon said use of the emergency hospital would indicate wards at other hospitals had exceeded capacity.

She added: “I am really happy we’ve not had to use the NHS Louisa Jordan but I’m still absolutely of the opinion it was right to prepare it as a contingency.”

Health officials are now considering whether the emergency hospital can be used to restart procedures that were paused as a result of the crisis, she said.

The number of coronavirus patients in intensive care has been declining, with 59 confirmed or suspected cases in the units across Scotland on Tuesday.

The temporary hospital is named after Glasgow-born First World War nurse Sister Louisa Jordan, who died on active service in Serbia in 1915 as part of the Scottish Women’s Hospitals for Foreign Services.