NHS chiefs have confirmed that the SEC in Glasgow could be used as an emergency site for patients, if the coronavirus overwhelms Scotland’s hospitals.
Jason Leitch, the national clinical director, said that work was already underway about how medics could provide “high quality care” in the conference centre.
His comments came as the Scottish Government revealed that another person had died from the disease, bringing the total number of fatalities up to 41.
READ MORE: A map of every Scottish coronavirus mutual aid support group
There are now 1384 confirmed cases across Scotland, up 139 in 24 hours. 95 people are in intensive care.
Across the UK as a whole the death toll increased by 209, taking the total number of deaths to 1228 so far. There are 19,522 confirmed cases of the disease.
Over the weekend pictures emerged of the makeshift Nightingale Hospital in London’s cavernous Excel conference centre.
It’s due to open this week with 500 beds, and with plans to eventually expand it to look after 4000 patients.
Speaking on the BBC’s Sunday Politics Scotland programme, Leitch said that while Scotland was still “a little bit behind London” in terms of infection, conversations between the Government, the NHS and the Ministry of Defence were currently underway about pulling together a similar hospital in Scotland.
READ MORE: Coronavirus: Where in Scotland is Covid-19 most prevalent?
He said health boards had managed to redesign the health service in two weeks and were in the process of effectively quadrupling intensive care.
“If you told me that a month ago, I honestly would have thought you were crazy. So the first thing to say is the most important thing we’re doing is we’re redesigning the way we have our existing infrastructure. That’s number one.
“Number two is we’re of course thinking in a reasonable worst case scenario, if the curve really came to accelerate really fast, what would we do if we ran out of space in that existing infrastructure.
“We’re still planning with all our hearts and minds to bring that curve down so the existing infrastructure copes.
“If it doesn’t, then we’re also thinking about where we could do good care, high quality care in another environment and the SEC is one of those possibilities.
READ MORE: Mass graves could be introduced if limited morgue spaces fill
“We have some advantages because we’re a little bit behind London, and I’m in touch with the people at the Nightingale hospital at the Excel, I spoke to them yesterday about what they’re planning, about what their clinical model will be, and we are getting that information so we can learn in time, if we require that.
“So we’ve started in the sense that we’ve begun to think about what that would look like, where you could do it.”
Meanwhile, according to reports in the Sunday Mail, large refrigerated mobile units normally used by the British Army are to be deployed, possibly next to Scotland’s major hospitals, to act as mobile morgues.
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