Scotland will have a state-of-the-art heart and lung treatment centre at Golden Jubilee Hospital in Clydebank, which will centralise heart and lung surgery for patients across the west of Scotland.
As the largest specialist unit in the UK, it will also be a national centre for heart transplants.It is estimated that 10,000 procedures a year will be performed at the centre, including 15 heart transplants, 1,900 cardiac operations and 2,500 lung operations. Health Minister Andy Kerr has approved the proposals for the site, which will be open by spring next year.
Plans to create a centre of excellence at the former private hospital were suggested by doctors and fast-tracked by Greater Glasgow Health Board. The site will utilize empty space at the Golden Jubilee to bring together expertise and equipment for heart and lung surgery.
The Clydebank-based hospital is situated seven miles outside Glasgow. The facility should be ready in 2007, five years ahead of the executive's original schedule.
Jill Young, the hospital's CEO, said the new centre will be one of the largest specialist units in Britain. "With clinical expertise and high-tech equipment concentrated at the Jubilee National Hospital, patients in the west of Scotland will receive faster high quality treatment," she said.
