Residents ‘assumed to have virus’

● NHS Louisa Jordan opens its doors as its boss says public’s ‘tremendous’ lockdown compliance means it’s not needed yet

The head of the emergency hospital set up to cope with a surge in Covid-19 patients said she does not expect the facility will be required to open in the “next few days,” but stressed it will remain in place “for as long as is required”.

Jill Young, chief executive of NHS Louisa Jordan, the vast temporary facility erected in Glasgow, said the “tremendous” compliance by the Scottish public with lockdown measures meant that there was no imminent need for the temporary hospital to begin treating people, although she emphasised it was “far too early” to make predictions about a plateau in infection rates.

The new hospital, which became operational yesterday, will have capacity for an initial 300 patients, but the Scottish Government has said this can be expanded, if necessary, to accommodate more than three times that number, with some 1,036 bed bays in place.

If and when it begins treating people, wards of 40 beds will

People returning to care homes from hospital are not routinely tested but are assumed to have coronavirus and put into isolation, the head of Scottish Care has said.

Following calls for testing of all new and returning care home residents, Dr Donald Macaskill said measures are already in place to give other residents and staff the “absolute assurance” they will not pass on the virus.

He explained there is “very strict criteria” for new residents during the coronavirus lockdown.

Dr Macaskill said: “The person is admitted to the care home and the care home assumes they are positive - even if there are no indicators that they are.”

They will then be “barrier nursed” for between one week and two, Dr Macaskill explained, with the person isolated in a separate room and “intensive nursing with the adequate PPE and protection for staff, and for the individual involved”. open on a phased basis so as to ease the potential strain on existing hospitals during the pandemic, and Ms Young said that it was ready to begin treating people at any point.

Praising the public for staying home and following social distancing measures, she said: “The compliance with the guidance they have been given is tremendous, which has given us hope that the numbers are not increasing as fast as we imaginedtheywould,andthat in fact they look to be plateauing, although it’s far too early to be taking any final predictions on that.”

The facility, based in Glasgow’s

Dr Macaskill, who is the chief executive of the independent care sector representative Scottish Care, added procedures within care homes have been “massively changed” to protect people during the pandemic.

Official figures released last week by the National Records of Scotland revealed almost a quarter (24.6 per cent) of deaths linked to coronavirus happened in care homes but Dr Macaskill insisted for most people in care homes they are the best and safest place to be.

“We all know that keeping somebody - once they have recovered from any condition - in a hospital when you’re older can be very negative to that person, it reduces your life expectancy,” he said.

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon and Health Secretary Jeane Freeman have faced repeated questions about testing for care home residents, with opposition parties calling for all new admissions to be tested.

Scottish Exhibition Campus – a space ordinarily thriving with concert goers, shows and exhibitions – will only be for Covid-19 patients who are aged 18 years or older. It will be open for patients who do not need intensive care, or who are in the process of recovering after being in intensive care.

But Ms Young said that the hospital has “made provision for high dependency” on the basis that the condition of some patients who are admitted may deteriorate, with a 90 bed ward available if necessary.

Ms Young, a former chief executive of the Golden Jubilee Hospital in Clydebank, said the hospital would be operational for at least the next five months, but stressed that there was the “option to extend that if it is required,” explaining that the size of the site and the infrastructure, such as oxygen supplies and “miles of cabling,” meant it would not relocate.

“We will not have to move, indeed, we could not move,” she said. “We are here for as long as is required, and I think everyone would agree with that. It’s five months initially but with an open negotiating contract to take us forward as required.”

Amid questions over the cost to the public purse of creating the site, she said final costs of the hospital will be made available in due course, and emphasised that a significant amount of the expenditure “will be reusable and reallocated back into health boards and hospitals”.

She explained: “The majority of the furniture, the equipment, the consumable supplies, will all be reallocated if they’re not required.”

Ms Young said all the supplies and equipment – including personal protective equipment – utilised by the new hospital were in addition to existing NHS supplies in Scotland, and that “we have not taken any supplies or equipment from any existing supplies.”

They were procured through national procurement in the same manner all NHS Scotland equipment is sourced.

While the government hopes the £43 milion resource will never have to be utilised, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said she was “perfectly comfortable” with the decision to invest in it.

Speaking at the Scottish Government’s daily briefing earlier, she said: “I would rather be

“We are here for as long as is required, and I think everyone would agree with that”

JILL YOUNG

in the position of looking back and saying we invested money in something that we might have needed and didn’t need because of other thing we did, than be in a position of finding that we needed a facility like that, and we dedicated not to invest the money in it.”

Praising the workers, Ms Young said: “It’s just over two weeks, just look at the standard and quality of the beds here.

“It’s just been incredible to bring together 700 to 800 construction workers, support teams, clinical staff, NHS teams to have designed, constructed and mobilised in over two weeks. It’s just remarkable and my thanks go out to all of them for doing that.”