Lack of beds sees patients transferred in the night

PATIENTS have been transferred from Scotland’s flagship hospital in the middle of the night because of a lack of beds, as the winter crisis hits the health service.

NHS bosses said patients at the £1billion Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Glasgow, were sent to Gartnavel General Hospital due to a ‘high level of demand’.

The problem occurred overnight on Monday this week, when 91 emergency patients are understood to have been forced to wait on trolleys because the hospital was so busy.

Patients who had already been admitted to the hospital were transferred to Gartnavel, on the other side of the city, until around 3am, to make way for those with more urgent problems.

The hospital said the move was part of its ‘escalation’ plan to cope with pressures, but critics branded the move ‘completely unacceptable’.

The ‘superhospital’ is one of the biggest in the UK and was built to modernise the

‘Hospital was supposed to ease burden’

city’s health services. But the latest revelations follow similar pressures last winter.

A spokesman for NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde said: ‘Our hospitals have been very busy over the past few days and frontline teams at our four hospitals with Emergency Departments are reporting an increased number of patients.

‘We accept that a number of our patients at the Queen Elizabeth waited longer than is acceptable due to a high level of demand and we apologise to those.

Scottish Conservative health spokesman Miles Briggs said: ‘This flagship hospital was supposed to ease the strain on other hospitals in the Glasgow area. Instead, it seems to be adding to their burden. This is a completely unacceptable development and raises serious questions about the SNP’s management of this new hospital project.

A Scottish Government spokesman said: ‘We expect challenges over winter and NHS boards will follow established procedures to deal with busy periods. We have provided record funding to help the NHS services throughout the winter.’