The first helicopter test landing has taken place on the new south Glasgow hospital’s helipad.
Yesterday a Scottish Ambulance Service EC135 air ambulance operated by Bond Air Services performed a perfect landing on the state-of-the-art helipad on the roof of the 14 storey hospital.
The helipad has a dedicated rapid access lift which can transfer an emergency patient from the helicopter direct into the heart of either adult or paediatric Emergency Department within just minutes.
NHSGGC Emergency Medicine Consultant, Dr Phil Munro, said: “We are delighted the first landing has taken place and it went perfectly. The design of the helipad with its direct access to a dedicated lift to rapidly take patients into adult or paediatric Emergency Department is truly a gold standard for our patients.”
Garry Fraser, General Manager from the Scottish Air Ambulance Service said: “The helipad on the roof of the new hospital will provide quicker direct access to the emergency department, doing away with the need to transfer the patient to a road ambulance for transport into the hospital.”
Dr Munro added: “The design of the helipad was agreed at the outset of the build after emergency doctors and planning colleagues looked at the best hospital helipad designs nationally and internationally.
“We believe this design offers the best possible helicopter to Emergency Department transfer time for adult and paediatric patients. The new south Glasgow helipad is similar in design and height to the Royal London Hospital which is the busiest trauma unit in the UK.”
The landing is the first of two test landings required by the Civil Aviation Authority prior to the hospital opening to patients for the first time next month. The second landing is due to take place next month.
The stunning world-class £842m south Glasgow hospitals – South Glasgow University Hospital and the Royal Hospital for Sick Children – are located on the former Southern General Hospital campus in Govan.
They will deliver local, regional and national services in some of the most modern and best designed healthcare facilities in the world.
Crucially these two brand new hospitals are located next to a first class and fully modernised maternity unit and so deliver the gold standard model of maternity, paediatric and adult acute hospital care on a single campus.
The adult hospital features 1,109 individual single patient rooms and all with an external window view. Each room is equipped to the highest of standards with private shower and toilet facilities, free television and radio and Wi-Fi.
The children’s hospital features 244 paediatric beds with a further 12 neonatal beds in the maternity unit next door. The vast majority of the paediatric beds are in single rooms with space for overnight accommodation for parents. The new children’s hospital also features a cinema, indoor and outdoor play areas and a roof garden.
With the opening of these world-class hospitals we are closing the Western Infirmary, Victoria Infirmary including the Mansionhouse Unit, Southern General and Royal Hospital for Sick Children at Yorkhill.