It will start treating its first NHS patients on Tuesday.

The executive bought the hospital from the Abu Dhabi Investment Company for �37.5m in a deal signed on Friday afternoon.

It will be used to cut waiting times, with patients from across Scotland being sent there for heart operations, knee and hip replacements and plastic surgery.

The 540-bed private hospital had failed to make a profit since it opened in 1994.

Malcolm Chisholm: "Good deal"

Health Minister Malcolm Chisholm described it as "a superb acquisition" and "a good deal for Scotland".

"We can now start to engage formally with the healthcare staff employed at the hospital and begin the transformation of the facility from private hospital to national waiting times centre," he said.

He said work had already been carried out by the health service's national waiting times unit to ensure that the hospital was put to effective use as soon as possible.

He said NHS patients would arrive for treatment from Tuesday onwards.

The unit has arranged for patients from across Scotland to be sent to the hospital for complex heart operations, major orthopaedic operations like knee replacements, plastic surgery and heart investigations like angiograms.

Wealthy foreigners

For the hospital, the change of ownership was the latest chapter in a history that has never been free from controversy.

Originally envisaged by the Conservative government as a major inward investment coup for Scotland, it was built with foreign money and government funds.

It was intended to be a state-of-the-art hospital to be used by wealthy foreigners.

But after its opening in 1994, the expected numbers of patients never materialised and the Abu Dhabi Investment company acquired it from the previous owners.

It has a capacity for 540 beds but only about one tenth of that total are staffed.