Work starts on new £6.4m centre
Linzi Watson • Published 9 Feb 2012 19:00
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WORK BEGINS: Businessman Boyd Tunnock, left, and Quarriers chief executive Paul Moore, right, cut the first sod.
AN Inverclyde-based social care charity has started work on a pioneering new £6.4 million epilepsy centre.
The independent hospital is being built in Glasgow by Quarriers - and when complete it will be one of the most advanced facilities for the assessment and treatment of epilepsy in the world.
The charity's chief executive, Paul Moore, cut the first sod for the new 12-bed centre at St Kenneth Drive in Govan on Tuesday.
Building work for the new facility is expected to take 12 months to complete.
It will be the only one of its kind in Scotland and will replace the charity's existing centre in Quarrier's Village, which was built in 1970 and is coming to the end of its working life.
Trainee neurologists will be offered placements at the centre, which will also deliver training for family doctors, nurses and conduct cutting-edge research into epilepsy.
It is estimated that 54,000 people in Scotland have the condition.
Mr Moore said: "This represents another significant milestone for our work supporting people living with epilepsy.
"We have been involved in epilepsy services for over a century and currently assess more than 100 people each year with some of the most complex forms of the condition.
"However, our existing centre is coming to the end of its working life.
"The new Scottish Epilepsy Centre in Govan will be a centre of excellence and enable the charity to be at the forefront of assessment and diagnosis of epilepsy in the UK and further afield.
"We will also be able to support more people each year living with one of the most common neurological conditions in the UK."
The chief executive was joined at the sod cutting ceremony on Tuesday by Scottish businessman Boyd Tunnock - of biscuit makers Thomas Tunnock Ltd - who has donated £40,000 for a consulting room.
William Quarrier, the charity's founder, first became interested in the plight of those living with epilepsy in the 1900s when a Colony of Mercy was established in Quarrier's Village.
Since then the Inverclyde charity has treated thousands of patients.
This article appeared in Greenock Telegraph 09 Feb 12
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