Structural works have been completed on Scotland’s £300m Forth Valley Acute Hospital, which will replace services at two nearby hospitals.
The 860-bed facility at Larbert is to open to patients in 2010 and is being built as part of a public private partnership scheme to replace services at Falkirk and Stirling Royal Infirmaries.
The new building will house A&E services, a maternity unit, intensive care, children’s services, cancer day care, psychiatric and mental health wards, outpatient therapies and a dedicated women’s outpatient department.
The building project is currently in week 98 of a 207-week schedule. The hospital is expected to be fully operational by late 2011, employing about 3,500 staff.
“This is the largest construction project in the country and it has delivered real benefits in terms of jobs and investment in the central belt,” said Scotland’s First Minister Alex Salmon.
