Sturgeon ‘false hope’ blast over children’s ward

THE First Minister has been challenged over the closure of a children’s ward she said months ago was not under threat.

Nicola Sturgeon was asked in March last year during a live TV debate if there were plans to shut ward 15 of the Royal Alexandra Hospital (RAH) in Paisley.

The First Minister pledged that health services would be kept, “as local as they need to be” and added: “There’s no proposals to close that particular ward.”

However months earlier, official papers revealed plans by the board to close the ward as part of a plan to save £69million. The proposals were formally approved by NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde earlier this week.

The final decision will rest with the Health Secretary, Shona Robison.

Scottish Labour leader Kezia Dugdale quizzed the First Minister about the ward during yesterday’s First Mnister’s Questions accusing Ms Sturgeon of “giving false hope to families.”

The First Minister said: “The proposal was voted on by Greater Glasgow and Clyde health board this week.

“By definition, therefore, the proposal did not exist in a form that the Scottish Government could consider last year before the Scottish election.

“I am not prejudging the Scottish Government’s view on the mat- ter, because we now have to go through a formal process of our own, but let us remember that the proposal comes in the context of there being a new children’s hospital in the south of Glasgow, just a few miles away from the Royal Alexandra hospital.

“The proposal will be given full and proper consideration.”