ALL the world's a stage for surgeons who will perform at a #7m theatre complex opened at the Royal Hospital for Sick Children in Glasgow yesterday, writes Alan MacDermid, Medical Correspondent.

The facilities include television camera and radio microphone links which can beam operations within the hospital and to others at home and abroad.

Apart from the patients, the main beneficiaries will be medical students and nurses - the surgeon can see the audience to whom he is talking, and students can observe the surgeon at work, as well as ask questions.

Mr Ken Thomson, chief executive of the Yorkhill NHS Trust, said: ''It opens up a whole new horizon as far as teaching medical, nursing or paramedical staff is concerned.''

More than 100,000 children will undergo surgery each year in the building, which houses a day surgery suite, six in-patient theatres, an endoscopy room, two recovery suites, a reception and play area, and an anaesthetic department.

The building has been arranged so that children waiting for operations will not have the unsettling experience of mingling with others who have just undergone surgery. The building was opened by Mrs Joan Cameron, former chairman of the Yorkhill Trust.