Coronavirus: Emergency virus hospital ready for patients

Coronavirus: Timelapse of Scotland's newest hospital being built

Construction of Scotland's temporary coronavirus hospital, NHS Louisa Jordan, has been completed.

The £43m facility at the Scottish Events Campus (SEC) in Glasgow will be ready to receive Covid-19 patients from Monday, if required.

It will provide up to 1,036 additional beds to support the pandemic response.

The announcement from Health Secretary Jeane Freeman came on the day the number of hospital deaths from the virus in Scotland reached 903.

Construction of the hospital began on 31 March after the British Army conducted a feasibility study and work took 18 days to complete.

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However, it is hoped the hospital will not be needed, as ongoing lockdown measures slow the rate of transmission of the virus in Scotland.

Standing in for the first minister at Sunday's coronavirus briefing, Ms Freeman revealed that a further 10 people had died in hospital after testing positive for Covid-19.

Sunday's figures showed that the death toll had risen to 903, with 8,187 people now testing positive for the virus - an increase of 367 in the past 24 hours.

There has been a drop of eight patients being treated in intensive care - a total of 174 and 1,797 people are in hospital with confirmed or suspected Covid-19, a rise of four.

A total of 39,612 tests have now been carried out.

Lifting lockdown: 'Not plans we would endorse', said Ms Freeman

Ms Freeman reiterated that the figures would be an under-estimate, given the low number of death registrations made over the weekend.

She said: "They should be treated with some caution."

She said the Scottish government remained confident NHS Louisa Jordan would not be needed.

'Not endorsed'

Ms Freeman also addressed reports in the UK press describing plans for a "three-stage" approach for lifting the lockdown and to claims schools may re-open in the next few weeks.

She said: "These are not plans the Scottish government have seen and from what we have read they are not plans we would currently endorse.

"We have committed to publishing later this week our initial thinking on how Scotland plots our way forward."

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The health secretary said there were no plans to lift lockdown restrictions

Ms Freeman added: "We confirmed only three days ago that the existing lockdown would continue for a further three weeks and we will use that time to assess the evidence and the options before we make any further decisions."

The health secretary asked people to continue to follow the current lockdown rules.

She also confirmed that a quantity of face masks had been withdrawn from the ambulance service last week after the model was "found to have too poor a fit ratio" and was therefore not safe for issue. They have since been replaced.

It comes as a plane carrying new equipment for the NHS - including 10 million face masks - landed in Scotland from China on Saturday.

Ms Freeman concluded her announcement about the new emergency hospital by thanking those who had "worked tirelessly" to transform the SEC and said the decision on whether patients would be accepted to the hospital would be reviewed on a regular basis.

She added: "I hope this facility will not be needed as, alongside the public's continued efforts to stay at home, the NHS in Scotland has already taken steps to increase the number of NHS beds."

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Nicola Sturgeon oversaw the hospital build

The hospital was 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.

It will have capacity for an initial 300 patients and this can be expanded to 1036 bed bays.

It will be operational on a phased basis, based on demand and staff will also be phased in from NHS Scotland, including those returning from retirement.

Louisa Jordan in numbers

  • 23,000 square metres of flooring have been laid

  • more than 1,000 bed bays have been erected

  • more than 8,000 pieces of medical equipment have been ordered

  • 35,000 metres of network cabling have been laid for the nurse call system

  • 135,000 metres of cabling for lighting and power sockets have been laid

  • a new bespoke system to ensure oxygen supply to every bed has been put in place with 1,400 medical gas outlets