Health officials in East Lothian are considering opening up two mothballed wards in a new state-of-the-art hospital to treat those affected by the Coronavirus outbreak.
East Lothian Community Hospital opened in November last year, but both of the top floor wards have been closed off with plans to open them as the population of the region expands.
READ MORE: Holyrood staff told to take laptops home as fears grow over coronavirus
Around a dozen patients are temporarily in one of the wards after the local Integrated Joint Board (IJB) agreed to assist NHS Lothian in coping with winter pressures.
However, under plans discussed at a meeting of the board this week, current patients would be moved out to accommodate beds for up to 44 potential Covid-19 patients.
Alison Macdonald, chief officer of the IJB, said talks were ongoing about ways to tackle the virus, and to ensure vulnerable people are protected and staff remain safe.
She said: “We have 44 beds not in use on the top floor and we are preparing in case they are needed.
“The benefits of the community hospital is each room is en-suite and has piped oxygen and piped suction at each bed. It is a well-equipped hospital.”
The £70 million facility was built with 132 beds for long-stay patients and 20 ortho rehabilitation beds.
Councillor Sue Kempson, chairperson of the audit and risk committee, said the biggest risk posed by coronavirus at the moment was the uncertainty about what would happen.
READ MORE: 27 cases now confirmed after more than 2,200 tests
She said: “I have no idea what is going to happen or how long it is going to go on for.
“It is a big unknown, which makes it so difficult to plan for.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here