Queen opens Glasgow hospital named in her honour

Accompanied by the Duke of Edinburgh, she visited the £842 million South Glasgow University Hospital and the Royal Hospital for Sick Children as part of her week of royal engagements in Scotland. In a ceremony she unveiled plaques officially renaming them The Queen Elizabeth University Hospital, Glasgow and The Royal Hospital for Children, Glasgow. The new campus is replacing the Royal Hospital for Sick Kids at Yorkhill, the Southern General Hospital, Western and Victoria infirmaries and Mansionhouse Unit. She also officially opened the teaching and learning centre which has been renamed The Queen Elizabeth Teaching and Learning Centre - Stratified Medicine Scotland. The couple were greeted by cheering crowds waving flags when they arrived at the hospital this afternoon. They were given a tour of the children’s hospital and the Queen met four young girls in one of the wards, one of whom was wearing a tiara for the occasion. Staff waving flags lined the corridors as they passed through into The Queen Elizabeth University Hospital, where they met patients doing exercises in the gym. They then joined 300 guests at an official opening ceremony, where they saw a video about the facilities and listened to a speech by Andrew Robertson, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde chairman. He said: “It is a great honour to our staff and to the patients we serve that Her Majesty and His Royal Highness visited these magnificent new facilities today and granted us the honour of royal names for these centres of excellence. “In delivering these projects we bring to fulfilment the clinical strategy for hospital services in Greater Glasgow that was agreed in 2002. “Throughout this journey, successive Scottish governments have been wholly supportive - most recently in providing £842 million of public funding for the full cost of these two state-of-the-art hospitals.” After she had unveiled the three plaques, the Queen was presented with a posy by 10-year-old Amy Carmichael, who has been receiving treatment from the children’s hospital for three years and has raised £12,000 for leukaemia and lymphoma research during that time. First Minister Nicola Sturgeon and Health Secretary Shona Robison were also at the ceremony. Ms Robison said: “It is fantastic to mark the official opening of the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital and the Royal Hospital for Children. “The world-leading technology at these state-of-the-art hospitals will help free up staff time and improve the patient’s experience of hospital.” • Ten ways to cut your home energy bills

Queen opens Glasgow hospital named in her honour

THE Queen today officially opened two “state-of-the-art” new hospitals, one of which has been named in her honour, in Scotland’s biggest city.