Hospital delay

It will indeed be at least five years before the new children's hospital in Glasgow is opened ("Hospital delay puts babies at risk, says surgeon", The Herald, May 2).

Back in 2004, the then Health Minister announced that the new hospital was to be built within five years and co-located with the new maternity extension and the new adult hospital. This was a bold but ill-advised statement.

The Southern General site is not an easy site on which to build. The water levels on site are high due to the proximity of the Clyde. Any building will require to be constructed on a raft supported by piles driven down to rock face, a distance of up to 25 metres below ground. Areas of the existing hospital have to be demolished before the new build can start.

To enable this to happen with minimum disruption to the running of the hospital, services such as water, electricity, telephone and sewerage have had to be repositioned at the periphery of the site to limit damage during the demolition and building work.

It has taken five years for the Greater Glasgow and Clyde Health Board to evaluate the above and reach the stage of appointing a contractor to design and build the children's and adult hospital to link into the new maternity extension.

Carl Davis, consultant paediatric surgeon at Yorkhill, and his colleagues are very aware of the problems and will without doubt come up with a plan for the most "at-risk babies" born in the next five years.

Louise Laing, Glasgow.

9 May 2009