A HEALTH board has apologised after pregnant women poised to give birth were turned away from a flagship maternity unit because it was full.

Expectant mothers arriving at the maternity unit at the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow have been waiting hours in maternity wards today because there were no spaces for them in the labour wards. In some cases patients were having contractions minutes apart on a packed maternity ward while still waiting to be moved to a labour bed.

From lunchtime, others were being turned away and sent to the Royal Alexandra Hospital in Paisley and the Princess Royal Maternity after beds also ran out in the maternity wards. It included women arriving for planned Caesarean sections.

It is the first time in the unit's seven-year history that it has been forced to close to new admissions.

NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde said the unit has now resumed "normal service" and apologised to patients affected.

A spokeswoman said: “A temporary divert at the maternity at the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital has now been lifted and the hospital has returned to normal service.

“We have an arrangement where we use our three maternities to manage peaks in demand across NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde.

“The divert – to the nearby Royal Alexandra Hospital and the Princess Royal Maternity – was put in place due to a high number of admissions to the QEUH and a number of women and babies developing complications.

“We arranged for three women to be admitted to other maternity hospitals in our area and a further two women had their planned procedures safely deferred for a matter of hours.

“Patient safety was maintained at all times. We would like to apologise to anyone to whom this caused any distress.”