THE Queen officially opened two “state-of-the-art” new hospitals in Glasgow, one of which has been named in her honour.

Accompanied by the Duke of Edinburgh, she visited the £842 million South Glasgow University Hospital and the Royal Hospital for Sick Children as part of her week of royal engagements in Scotland.

In a ceremony she unveiled plaques officially renaming them The Queen Elizabeth University Hospital, Glasgow and The Royal Hospital for Children, Glasgow.

The new campus is replacing the Royal Hospital for Sick Kids at Yorkhill, the Southern General Hospital, Western and Victoria infirmaries and Mansionhouse Unit.

She also officially opened the teaching and learning centre which has been renamed The Queen Elizabeth Teaching and Learning Centre - Stratified Medicine Scotland.

The couple were greeted by cheering crowds waving flags when they arrived at the hospital this afternoon.

They were given a tour of the children’s hospital and the Queen met four young girls in one of the wards, one of whom was wearing a tiara for the occasion.

Staff waving flags lined the corridors as they passed through into The Queen Elizabeth University Hospital, where they met patients doing exercises in the gym.

They then joined 300 guests at an official opening ceremony, where they saw a video about the facilities and listened to a speech by Andrew Robertson, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde chairman.

He said: “It is a great honour to our staff and to the patients we serve that Her Majesty and His Royal Highness visited these magnificent new facilities today and granted us the honour of royal names for these centres of excellence.

“In delivering these projects we bring to fulfilment the clinical strategy for hospital services in Greater Glasgow that was agreed in 2002.

“Throughout this journey, successive Scottish governments have been wholly supportive - most recently in providing £842 million of public funding for the full cost of these two state-of-the-art hospitals.”

After she had unveiled the three plaques, the Queen was presented with a posy by 10-year-old Amy Carmichael, who has been receiving treatment from the children’s hospital for three years and has raised £12,000 for leukaemia and lymphoma research during that time.

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon and Health Secretary Shona Robison were also at the ceremony.

Ms Robison said: “It is fantastic to mark the official opening of the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital and the Royal Hospital for Children.

“The world-leading technology at these state-of-the-art hospitals will help free up staff time and improve the patient’s experience of hospital.”

The Queen was wearing a periwinkle blue coat and floral chiffon dress by Karl Ludwig and a hat by Angela Kelly.

As she left the hospital she was presented with a posy by one-year-old Emily Faulkner, from Bonnybridge, who was wearing a tartan dress.

The little girl’s mother, who works as a smoking cessation specialist at the hospital, said: “It was lovely to meet the Queen and Prince Philip. The Queen just said she was lovely and Prince Philip was asking her name.

“I think it’s wonderful for them to come and visit.”

The new adult hospital has 1,109 individual patient bedrooms and brings together all the specialities that are needed to support acutely ill patients immediately when they arrive at hospital.

It has the biggest critical care unit in the United Kingdom, a theatre complex with more than 30 theatres and other subtle design enhancements to ensure acutely ill patients are treated efficiently and effectively.

The new children’s hospital features 244 paediatric beds, with a further 12 neonatal beds in the maternity unit next door. The vast majority of the paediatric beds are in single rooms.