MORE than 200 jobs will be created as the biggest and most advanced hospital in Scotland prepares to accept patients for the first time.
Construction of the new £585 million South Glasgow University Hospital is due to be completed within six weeks, with the first patients expected at the start of May 2015. Robert Calderwood, chief executive of NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde - the health board behind the project - said he expected to recruit "a couple of hundred people" to help commission the new building and decommission the old properties.
The short-term jobs, expected to last about six months, will range from specialist work such as IT to portering and domestic roles.
Mr Calderwood discussed the plans as he gave The Herald the first opportunity to tour the interior of the building, which also houses the new Royal Hospital for Sick Children. It will give Glasgow what has become known as the "gold standard" of maternity, paediatric and adult medicine being on a single site.
Mr Calderwood said: "This is the conclusion of what has been 12 years of work since we got the strategy approved by the Scottish Parliament. Some of the wow factor we saw in our original design has been delivered."
The opening of the building is part of a revamp of the Southern General Hospital site, which will create one of the largest and most modern hospital campuses in Europe. Mr Calderwood said: "All of the projects have come in on or under budget and on or within time - that is fairly unique within the public sector."
The new hospital will replace services currently provided at the Southern General and the Victoria and Western infirmaries. Mr Calderwood said this concentration of resources would have allowed the reduction of 400 staff if patient demand was static, but added: "The reality is that as demand goes up we will use those staff to meet the rising demand."
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