THE mum of a terminally ill child confronted Health Secretary Shona Robison and board leaders over cost-saving plans to close a children’s ward which she claims could put her son's life at risk.

Anger over plans to close inpatient beds at both the Royal Alexandra Hospital in Paisley and Scotland’s only homeopathic hospital were the main focus of yesterday’s NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde annual review.

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Campaigners opposing a number of planned service cuts as part of a plan by the board to save £70million staged a demonstration ahead of yesterday’s meeting, joined by NHS workers union Unison.

Karen Meikle, 29, from Paisley, whose son Alex, 7, suffers from a number of limiting conditions including Cerebral Palsy, appealed for “local services for local people” on her banner.

She said: “Alex has always been cared for in this ward unless he needs surgery.

“There is always a bed there for him because he requires frequent specialist care.

“It takes me three minutes to get him there if it is an emergency. If an ambulance is trying to get through the Clyde Tunnel at peak times, it’s a no go.

“Alex has to go in every week for checks. He can’t travel for long by bus.

“If this goes ahead I will ask the board to cover the cost of digging a hole in the ground for my son.”

Jack Davidson whose daughter was treated in ward 15 brought with him a letter from Ms Robison, dated October 26 2015, which gave reassurances that there were “no formal plans” to close inpatient beds.

However, the board is considering transferring paediatric beds to the Royal Hospital for Children.

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Mr Davidson said: “Originally the plan was to transfer beds to Yorkhill but it was discovered that they couldn’t take children over 12 so that was abandoned.

“We knew that one day this would come back. It’s a life and death situation.”

John Brown, Chairman of NHSGGC said proposals for paediatric services at the RAH and other planned changes would be set out at the upcoming board meeting on August 16, after which a public consultation would be carried out.

He said: “We are not obliged to do this consultation but we want to.”

Catherine Hughes, who is opposing cuts to seven inpatient beds at the Centre for Integrative Care, put forward a vote of no confidence in the board on behalf of campaigners and appealed for the Health Secretary to intervene.

She said: “If you are going to be able to step in, then why not do it now, rather than wait for the consultation?”

Robert Calderwood, the board’s Chief Executive said the hospital, based at the Gartnavel campus, was the only one of it kind in the UK which has inpatient beds.

While he stressed that no decision will be made before a public consultation, he suggested that patients who require inpatient care could be accommodated elsewhere “within NHSGGC.”

Demonstrators also included families and patients opposing the possible closure of Lightburn Hospital in Glasgow’s East End and the relocation of cleft palette surgery from Edinburgh to Glasgow.

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A number of concerns were highlighted at Glasgow’s Queen Elizabeth University Hospital including transport, particularly for the elderly living outwith the city, ventilation in hospital rooms, the quality of the food offered to patients, staffing levels and the length of time it takes for prescriptions to arrive from the hospital’s pharmacy.