THE bone marrow transplant unit at Scotland's new flagship hospital is to be relocated amid concerns over poor air quality, in the latest blow to the £842 million facility.

Patients will be treated at the Beatson cancer unit in Glasgow instead after routine tests identified a "higher particle count than is desirable" at the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital department.

It comes only a month after the bone marrow transplant unit was transferred from the Beatson to the new hospital in the south side of Glasgow, which neighbours a sewage works.

The health board said it was moving the unit temporarily as a "precautionary measure" until the problem could be resolved and "optimal" air quality purification levels restored.

The ventilation system at the Beatson delivers specially filtered air to protect vulnerable cancer patients.

In total, 18 people who are receiving intensive treatment for acute leukaemia are to be transferred, but only adult patients are affected.

Children will continue to be cared for at a separate bone marrow transplant unit in the Royal Hospital for Children Glasgow, which shares the Queen Elizabeth site in Govan.

In a statement NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde said staff had been in direct contact with the patients affected and their families to explain the situation and apologise for any inconvenience this may cause.

Dr Anne Parker, Lead Consultant for Haemato-Oncology, said: "In consultation with colleagues from various disciplines, it has been agreed that 18 patients will move to the Beatson West of Scotland Cancer Centre for an interim period. This will enable remedial work to take place without disrupting patient care.

"This is purely a precautionary step and we have no evidence that any patient has been adversely affected as a result of the environment issues.

"We are fortunate that the Beatson is available to us and we are working with our critical care colleagues in the new High Acuity Unit which has been established there."

It came as the latest statistics for Scotland revealed that A&E waiting times at the Queen Elizabeth hospital have deteriorated despite the Scottish Government sending in a crack team of troubleshooters to reverse the trend.

It remains the worst in Scotland with 25 patients a day are now waiting longer than the four hour national target to be seen and then subsequently admitted, transferred or discharged.

The new batch of weekly figures show that the department's performance fell from 89.6 per cent of patients being seen within the target time during the week ending June 21, to 88.6 per cent in the week ending June 28, despite previous improvements.

The national performance target is 95 per cent.

Experts were sent in to help tackle the delays in mid-June after figures revealed that more than one in every five patients was waiting too long.

Scottish Labour health spokeswoman, Jenny Marra, said: "The flagship Glasgow Hospital is still not close to hitting performance targets, despite expert support teams being sent into the hospital weeks ago.

"The truth about our NHS in Scotland is that it has been underfunded by an SNP Government that has squeezed spending on our NHS in Scotland harder than the Tories. That decision has let down patients and staff across Scotland."

Scottish Liberal Democrat Health spokesman, Jim Hume, said the findings were concerning. He added: "This seems to be a step backwards from the welcome progress that we saw last week and Ministers need to ensure that the support staff at this new flagship hospital are getting is adequate."

The latest results come against a backdrop of improved waiting times nationally.

On average, A&E departments across Scotland saw 94.7 per cent of patients seen within the four-hour window, the best waiting times figures since weekly monitoring began in February.

The majority of boards achieved the 95 per cent interim target, but four - NHS Ayrshire and Arran, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, NHS Lanarkshire, and NHS Lothian - failed to do so.

Of those, NHSGGC was the worst performing with an average turnaround of 92.6 per cent.

The Scottish Government has set an ultimate goal of having 98 per cent of A&E patients seen within four hours, a target already achieved by NHS Highland and NHS Tayside.

Public Health Minister Maureen Watt said NHS Scotland was "getting closer to meeting our world-leading targets".

She added: "We have put record funding and staffing in place and we are committed to tackling delayed discharge, including through the integration of health and social care.

"That means we have the strong foundations in place to ensure our NHS continues to deliver quick, high-quality care for the people of Scotland."

Robert Calderwood, chief executive at NHSGGC, said he recognised there was "still some way to go" to achieve a sustained improvement across the region, but added: "We are confident that we are moving in the right direction and I am proud of the hard work of all staff who are striving to achieve the best for our patients."