20 years of supporting NHS Scotland

01 July 2022

NHS Golden Jubilee celebrated 20 years of collaboration on innovation and person-centred care as a unique national asset for NHS Scotland on June 27, 2022.

NHS Golden Jubilee celebrated 20 years of collaboration on innovation and person-centred care as a unique national asset for NHS Scotland on June 27, 2022.

Over the last two decades, Golden Jubilee Hospital has carried out close to one million procedures, treating patients from every health board area across the country.

Since 2002, the national NHS Board has grown from undertaking 3,000 procedures in a small number of specialties to a national asset that has gained university status, and includes a Research Institute, Conference and Training venue, the NHS Scotland Academy and the national Centre for Sustainable Delivery.

It has evolved into one of the UKs largest and most successful heart and lung centres, providing regional and national services such as heart transplantation. Carrying out over 150,000 cardiology, heart and lung surgeries, NHS Golden Jubilee specialists have undertaken 175 heart transplants since services transferred to the Clydebank site in 2008.

As one of Europe’s largest elective orthopaedic and cataract centres, patients have benefited from the specialist care that only comes with being a dedicated treatment centre carrying out about 25 per cent of Scotland’s procedures in these specialties. 

NHS Golden Jubilee is also a major diagnostics imaging service providing vital scan and scope procedures for patients in multiple specialties. During 2020, the hospital also supported NHS Boards by carrying out urgent and critical to life treatment for cancer patients.

Humza Yousaf MSP, health secretary said, “Congratulations to all NHS Golden Jubilee staff on the board’s 20th anniversary. I would like to thank everyone for what you have done and continue to do as we emerge and recover from this difficult time.

“During the pandemic NHS Golden Jubilee played a crucial role in supporting Scotland by providing ‘critical to life’ heart, lung and cancer services as well as opening a fifth cardiac lab, providing an additional 1,000 procedures a year.

“NHS Golden Jubilee continues to go from strength to strength and I look forward to seeing what the next 20 years – and beyond - will bring.”

In addition to treating Scotland’s population, NHS Golden Jubilee has been one of the most innovative organisations within the health sector.

Some examples include:

  • Pioneered enhanced recovery for hip and knee replacements (patients up on the day of surgery) and spread the practice across Scotland.
  • In a world first, treated a patient with an implantable cardioverter defibrillator using an MRI scanner.
  • Performed the first Scottish Transcatheter Pulmonary Valve Replacement - replacing a patient’s heart valve through a vein in his leg, avoiding the need for open-heart surgery.
  • Been the first in Scotland to use a Da Vinci robot to carry out lung surgery on patients (2018) and start using a robot for routine total and partial knee replacement surgery (2019). This has now been followed up with robotic general surgery.
  • Played major roles in UK and international research including CUPID2, SERCA2a, ‘PRAMI trial’ lead the T-TIME and Covid RV trials.

Professor Jann Gardner, chief executive of NHS Golden Jubilee commented, “As a national asset for NHS Scotland, we are extremely proud of how far this organisation has come in 20 years.

“Our highly-skilled specialists and dedicated staff have led the way in new and innovative techniques, which has helped thousands of patients and families across Scotland, providing them with a better quality of life after treatment.

“Although it is good to celebrate the successes of the last 20 years, NHS Golden Jubilee has always been adaptable and focused on patient demands so we need to look forward and support the current challenges within our health service.

“During the pandemic we opened a new cardiac catheterisation lab and dedicated eye centre to treat more patients than ever before. Next year we will be opening our new surgical centre that will allow us to carry out more orthopaedic surgeries and scope procedures.

“We will also continue to collaborate with colleagues across health, social care, academia, and industry to increase access to care, reduce health inequalities, widen employment routes, redesign workforce roles, deploy health innovations and better ways of working faster.

“Through all aspects of the NHS Golden Jubilee family, we look forward to providing world class healthcare to the people of Scotland in the years ahead.”