The £100m replacement for the Glasgow's Victoria Infirmary has opened its doors to show staff its facilities.

The New Victoria will treat around 400,000 patients a year, making it one of the busiest hospitals in Scotland.

Work on the hospital started in December 2006 and was completed on time and on budget by contractor Balfour Beattie. The same contractor was also responsible for the new £100m Stobhill Hospital in the north of the city. That is due to open next month.

A lot of work has gone into making the patient's experience as enjoyable as possible. Half of the 60 rooms have a single bed with an en-suite wet room and a television is provided free of charge. The remaining rooms have four beds but are unusually spacious.

The large picture window in the room where patients will undergo dialysis is positioned low enough to allow views out during treatment.

Glass panels in the windows let coloured light flood the white walls of the main entrance and pendulum lights hanging from the ceiling turn on gradually as the sun dims.

In the eight operating theatres, surgeons can switch on taps with a wave of their hand and check vital patient information on computer technology.

Karen Connelly, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde's commissioning manager for The New Victoria, said: "With this hospital we have skipped the 20th century and gone from the 19th to the 21st century."

Many of the 700 staff have already been given a guided tour. They will arrive on June 1, the first patient will follow on June 8 and by June 22 The New Victoria Hospital will be fully operational. The two hospitals are likely to work in tandem until around 2015 when the replacement Southern General is due to open its doors.

The new Victoria has no accident and emergency unit - a decision that has not met with agreement from many local people - but will have a minor injuries clinic for the "walking wounded" which will operate 12 hours a day, seven days a week.

It and Stobhill will both provide a wide range of outpatient clinics, day surgery and diagnostic services as well as specialist health services such as cardiology and gynaecology.

A health board spokesman said: "The purpose of The New Victoria Hospital is to introduce a revolutionary approach to meeting the needs of patients undergoing everything from one-off investigations to regular, ongoing appointments.

"Its modern treatment rooms, advanced surgery theatres and fresh, comfortable waiting areas will totally change the experience of patients for the better."

The new Stobhill Hospital, which opens on May 11, is also expected to treat 400,000 patients a year from the North and East of Glasgow, East Dunbartonshire and further afield.

The spokesman said: "As medicine has progressed and hospital care changed in the 21st century, the new Stobhill promises to have an exciting future as it once again transforms to take on new roles serving local communities for even more decades."

15 April 2009

Reproduced with permission from The Herald (Glasgow) Newsquest (Herald & Times) Ltd © Newsquest Media Group Ltd.