THE Golden Jubilee National Hospital has published figures showing its busiest year to date.

There were 36,015 elective inpatient, day case and diagnostic imaging procedures in 2015-16, a 12.5 per cent jump on the previous year for the Clydebank centre.

With more than 5,000 ophthalmology procedures, it is one of the busiest units in the UK, said the hospital.

Jill Young, chief executive of the Golden Jubilee Foundation, the NHS board which runs the Golden Jubilee National Hospital, said: “As a centre of excellence in orthopaedics, ophthalmology and heart and lung services, the Golden Jubilee is delighted to have continued to expand our services again in 2015-16, and we are proud to be making a real difference to the lives of so many people across the country.

“We have carried out over 500,000 procedures since 2002 and this past year has been our busiest yet, with more innovations and developments being delivered to benefit patients across all of our services, meeting our vision of leading quality, research and innovation.

“We couldn’t have achieved this without our staff, whose hard work and dedication provides the highest possible standard of care for everyone who walks through our doors.”

Public Health Minister Aileen Campbell said: “With an ageing population we know the NHS in Scotland is facing different challenges to a decade ago. This is why this government has committed £200 million to create five new elective and diagnostic centres across the country, as well as expand the excellent services at the Golden Jubilee National Hospital.”