A temporary emergency hospital could open at the Scottish exhibition centre in Glasgow to cope with a surge in critical coronavirus cases in Scotland, Nicola Sturgeon has announced.
The first minister said the so-called Nightingale hospital would be on standby, with a first tranche of 300 beds being installed and a potential total capacity of an extra 1,000 beds if needed.
It could be become operational in a fortnight, she said, but they hoped it would not be necessary. “Our focus very much is on ensuring we’re maximising general capacity and critical care capacity within the existing hospital network,” she said.
She added that there had been six further deaths overnight, taking Scotland’s total to 47, with 1,563 positive cases detected overall, up by 179 since yesterday, and 108 people in intensive care.
Jeane Freeman, the Scottish health secretary, said they had chosen the exhibition centre because of its proximity to the west of Scotland’s other hospitals, its transport links and security needs. She thanked the army for helping the government and NHS set it up.
Speaking at her daily coronavirus briefing, Sturgeon said they hoped the NHS would be able to cope with a surge in cases in existing hospitals, by setting aside 3,000 beds for coronavirus cases, and was working to quadruple intensive care beds to 700 places.
Sturgeon said that to help free up staff and capacity, NHS Scotland had temporarily paused routine screening for bowel cancer, cervical cancer and breast cancer for up to 12 weeks.
Catherine Calderwood, Scotland’s chief medical officer, said they were also temporarily pausing screening for abdominal aortic aneurysm and diabetic eye screening. Pregnancy and newborn baby screening would continue as before.
They could restart earlier if feasible. “It’s an important way of allowing the NHS to deal effectively with the impact of covid-19,” Sturgeon said.
Calderwood added that the virus outbreak could peak in Scotland in late April but the restrictions on daily life would continue for at least 13 weeks. She was “expecting a peak in the virus in two to three weeks, so I would be pessimistic that there would be any change to those stringent measures.”
Sturgeon said that in the four hours since the Scottish government had launched its new “Scotland cares” volunteering programme on Monday morning, 10,000 people had registered their interest in taking part.
