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Former Yorkhill Children's Hospital site to be put up for sale

News imagePA Media The entrance to a hospital building, with a sign up displaying directions for where to go for different departments. A man wearing a denim jacket is walking by, looking back at the hospital. PA Media
The site was home to the Royal Hospital for Sick Children for just over 100 years

The site of a former children's hospital in Glasgow is to go on the open market under plans to turn it into housing.

A meeting of the NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde health board last week discussed disposal of the grounds of the former Royal Hospital for Sick Children in Yorkhill.

Papers stated that future redevelopment of the site is expected to focus on mixed-use properties, including new social and affordable housing.

After children's services at the hospital were stopped in 2015 and moved to the new Queen Elizabeth University hospital, the building became the West Glasgow Ambulatory Care Hospital, covering a number of services, including minor injuries.

All services at the hospital, including dermatology clinics, orthopaedics and cardiac physiology, began moving away from the site last year. The majority have transferred to Gartnavel hospital in the West End.

An internal trawl process via the Scottish government to establish if any other departments could make use of the site concluded without any formal expressions of interest.

This has enabled the health board to move ahead with placing the site on the open market.

Real estate management company JLL has been hired to develop a disposal strategy.

'Residential-led' plan for Yorkhill

Papers for the meeting stated: "Preparatory work to support disposal is well advanced and is being undertaken in line with the NHS Scotland Property Transactions Handbook.

"Professional property and planning advisers have been appointed, governance arrangements are in place, and confirmation has been received that the site can be marketed for sale.

"Engagement with Glasgow City Council has established a clear planning and development framework to guide future redevelopment of the site which is expected to be mixed-use and residential-led, including social and affordable housing tenures."

Feedback already received by the health board from local residents has called on any new development to recognise the site's NHS history, as well as prioritising social or affordable housing and being of use for the wider local community.

The Royal Children's Hospital - commonly referred to simply as Yorkhill in the city - opened in 1914 and served Glasgow for just over 100 years.

After closing as a children's hospital in June 2015, it housed a minor injuries unit and the outpatient department for West Glasgow, which switched from the city's now closed Western Infirmary to the Yorkhill site.