'We're so proud': Staff bid farewell to NHS Louisa Jordan

Staff at the NHS Louisa Jordan have spoken of their pride of working at the hospital during the coronavirus pandemic.

The temporary hospital, situated within the SECC in Glasgow, will close on Thursday having played a critical role in the fight against Covid-19.

The hospital has carried out more than 32,000 healthcare appointments, trained more than 6900 healthcare staff and students and vaccinated around 175,000 people.

On Wednesday, the last outpatient and diagnostic appointments took place, alongside training and blood donations.

Vaccinations will continue until April 3 at the current site before moving to the Hydro from April 6.

“Now that things are getting under control, the numbers in ICU, the deaths, the spread of infection, vaccinations, it’s the right time [to close],” said NHS Louisa Jordan chief executive Jill Young.

“The only thing we were concerned about was the vaccination clinic but with our partners at the SECC and government support, we’re moving to the Hydro this weekend.

“We’ll have done something like 175,000 vaccines by this week and that’s something like nine per cent of the total amount that’s been done in Scotland already. That’s an incredible volume.

“Although we’re stopping the hospital, we’re continuing to contribute.”

Professor Jean Kerr, education lead at national skills education hub, said the hospital was a lifeline for training staff during the pandemic.

“We’ve been able to deliver Covid-safe training and that’s allowed us to expand into the space because previous areas we would use for simulation and training were taken over for Covid services,” she said.

“We’ve had to make it very safe for people to be able to get their training and that has been provided in bucketloads by the SECC here.

“We’ve had people from Clyde College, we’ve had people from the universities, nationally we’ve had people try out things for mental health training.

“So we’ve covered all the opportunities for training all healthcare practitioners throughout Scotland.”

Ms Young added: “It’s quite emotional, i feel quite sad because we’re closing it and then you feel happy that we weren’t needed.

“Also the legacy of what we’ve done because we haven’t been needed. We’ve contributed so much to the recovery and remobilisation of NHS Scotland.

“We decided, unlike all the other emergency Covid hospitals, we would not sit empty. So way back last year we decided to set up our outpatient clinics, we’ve done 32,000 across 14 specialties.

“We brought in two CT scanners and X Ray equipment and we’ve done many thousands of patients. These would all have been postponed or delayed.

“Even if we have just saved or contributed to someone getting an early diagnosis of something suspicious or to get quicker care and treatment, we’re passionate about that.

“We’re really proud not just about being Covid ready, it’s about all the other stuff we’ve done to date.”