KEZIA Dugdale has urged Nicola Sturgeon to step in to prevent the proposed closure of a children’s hospital ward in Paisley, after NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde backed moving in-patient care for youngsters to the Royal Hospital for Children in Glasgow.

The Scottish Labour leader also criticised local SNP MP Mhairi Black after she did not respond to a consultation on the closure of the paediatric ward at the Royal Alexandra Hospital (RAH). The Scottish Government will make the final decision on the move.

During First Minister’s Questions at Holyrood yesterday, Dugdale said Sturgeon, during a televised pre-election debate last year, had told audience member Gordon Clark there were no proposals to close the ward.

Dugdale said: “The ultimate decision to close this ward at the RAH now rests with her Government and here is her chance to do the right thing, but I’m not holding my breath given the two local SNP politicians couldn’t even be bothered to respond to the public consultation.

“The supposed poster girl of the anti-austerity movement, Mhairi Black, couldn’t be bothered and neither could George Adam.”

Dugdale said maternity units at the Vale of Leven Hospital in Alexandria and Inverclyde Royal Hospital in Greenock were also “under threat” and said there were Government plans to remove intensive care cots from neonatal units across Scotland.

Sturgeon rejected that claim, pointing out the proposals for both hospitals were being reconsidered by the health board. She said: “What we have is an expert-led report setting out what we need to do to enhance a small number of neonatal units to make them specialist enough to care for the sickest babies in our country and yet Kezia Dugdale is somehow suggesting that as First Minister and as Health Secretary we should ignore the opinions of those experts..

On the RAH, she said there had been no such proposal at the time she had been asked the question, while the local SNP politicians had contacted Health Secretary Shona Robison to make representations. Sturgeon went on: “I’m not prejudging the Scottish Government’s view of this, because we now have to go through a formal process of our own.

“But this is a proposal 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.”

It later emerged Adam had responded to the consultation, but his letter wasn’t included in the health board’s report due to an error. The chief executive of NHSGGC has written to Adam apologise.

An SNP spokesman said: “Mhairi Black has voiced grave concerns about the consultation conducted by NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde and has written to the Cabinet Secretary for Health, Shona Robison MSP, asking for a full review.

“Mhairi has also shared her disapproval of the proposed changes with the Health Secretary, and has asked her to visit Renfrewshire to meet with the families who will be affected by these proposed changes before a decision is taken.”