This item was published during the term of a previous administration that ended in April 2007
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Deal signed on HCI purchase
28/06/2002
The Executive will become the official owners of the HCI
Hospital at
midnight tonight, it was announced this
afternoon.
A formal deal with the Abu Dhabi Investment Company, the
owners of the
hospital, to purchase the hospital for £37.5 million
was signed this
afternoon.
The National Waiting Times Unit has also today confirmed
that the first
patients from the NHS to be treated at the new NHS
hospital will begin to
arrive next week.
Health Minister Malcolm Chisholm said the completion of
negotiations was "a good deal for the healthcare team whose
jobs had been under threat, a good deal for the NHS,
a good deal for patients, and a great deal for
Scotland."
Mr Chisholm said:
"At midnight tonight we will take over ownership of the
HCI facility at
Clydebank - and a new NHS hospital will be born.
"This afternoon, a deal between the Executive and the
owners of HCI was
signed - completing the purchase of the hospital,
land, and equipment for
the NHS for £37.5 million.
"This is a superb acquisition and represents a good deal
for the hundreds of
members of the HCI healthcare team whose jobs were
under threat, a good
deal for the taxpayer, a good deal for patients, and
a great deal for
Scotland.
"We can now start to engage formally with the healthcare
staff employed at
the hospital and begin the transformation of the
facility from private
hospital to national waiting times centre. I want to
warmly welcome those
staff into the NHS family.
"But we will not be standing still while our plans take
shape. The National
Waiting Times Unit has been working behind the scenes
to ensure that we
start to make the most effective use possible of the
hospital for the NHS -
as quickly as possible. They inform me today that the
first NHS patients to
be treated in the new NHS hospital at Clydebank will
arrive for procedures
from Tuesday onwards - including patients who have
experienced long waits
for major procedures like heart surgery and knee
replacements."
The Waiting Times Unit has arranged for long-waiters
from a range of NHS
Boards across Scotland to begin sending patients to
the new national
waiting times centre next week for:
* complex cardiac operations;
* major orthopaedic operations, like knee
replacements;
* plastic surgery; and
* investigative procedures for cardiac problems, like
angiograms.