This view might also have been thought by critics to be justified when Gavin Kenny , a professor of anaesthesia at Glasgow University , shifted his research team from Glasgow Royal Infirmary to HCI , lured by lavish facilities . But Mr Kenny 's move speeded up work on a machine which uses micro - computers to control the rate at which an anaesthetic is pumped into the blood of patients undergoing surgery .

COMPANIES that announce breakthroughs in medical science usually get a hero 's welcome . But whereas surgeons applauded when Health Care International ( HCI ) , a private hospital , announced this month that one of its doctors had invented an anaesthetic machine which means people feel much less sick after operations and speeds their recovery , reaction in Scotland was less than ecstatic .

In 1994, HCI opened a swanky 240 - bed private hospital to do expensive surgery on rich foreigners at Clydebank in Glasgow . Though it promised hundreds of jobs in an area of long dole queues , it went straight to the top of the local hate list . In an area which prides itself on being the cradle of socialism a century ago , it was regarded as an evil changeling , not least because the Tory government had promised a 30m grant to help build it .

The critics felt themselves thoroughly justified when , four months after it had opened , HCI went bust because its forecasts of patient numbers had been hopelessly optimistic . The Abu Dhabi Investment Company bought the bankrupt business , saving the government some embarrassment , although this did little to change local opinion , which regards it as a parasite on the National Health Service .

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This view might also have been thought by critics to be justified when Gavin Kenny , a professor of anaesthesia at Glasgow University , shifted his research team from Glasgow Royal Infirmary to HCI , lured by lavish facilities . But Mr Kenny 's move speeded up work on a machine which uses micro - computers to control the rate at which an anaesthetic is pumped into the blood of patients undergoing surgery .

Such machines are nothing new . But Mr Kenny 's device uses two micro - computers to achieve much closer monitoring of the pump feeding the anaesthetic into the patient . Extensive testing of the equipment has sufficiently impressed the authorities which regulate medical equipment in Britain and , so far , four other countries , to make this the first such machine to be licenced for commercial sale to hospitals .

The anaesthetic used by Mr Kenny 's machine is propofol , which has been in use for about ten years . It reduces the sickness felt by patients after they wake up from an operation . However , difficulties in controlling the dosage have always meant that anaesthetists have also had to rely on anaesthetic gases breathed in through a face mask . These gases cause post - operative nausea in about half of all patients . Mr Kenny 's machine reduces or eliminates the need for such gases . Tests at HCI , which is using Mr Kenny 's machine on all its patients , and at other hospitals show that the machine cuts the proportion of patients suffering nausea to less than 10%. So most patients thus treated recover from the anaesthetic in hours rather than days , says Mr Kenny .

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Anaesthetists who have either tried the machine , or seen it demonstrated at medical conferences , are enthusiastic . So are hospital administrators . Mr Kenny says that studies in America have shown that , although the drug costs about $14 ( 9 ) more per operation than conventional drugs , faster patient recovery time can save about $400 per patient . The British makers of the computer - controlled pump say they will cost about 1,500, not much more than conventional anaesthetic pumps . Use of it was authorised only in August , but they already have orders for 400.

The Edinburgh house in which Sir James Young Simpson , another Scottish doctor , discovered the first modern anaesthetic , chloroform , in 1846 has a commemorative plaque on it . Mr Kenny may eventually be as esteemed as Sir James . But whether his innovation encourages the Scots to pay more regard to HCI remains to be seen .

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