NURSING leaders have warned problems affecting Scotland's newest hospital show the wider NHS is "struggling to meet growing demand".

The new £842 million super-hospital in Glasgow was hit with claims of "chaos" last weekend, with reports of patients waiting for hours on trolleys in the accident and emergency department.

The transfer of services from three hospitals into the South Glasgow University Hospital has been described as the largest ever hospital migration in the UK.

Patients and staff from the Southern General and the Victoria Infirmary have relocated and the transfer of accident and emergency services from the Western Infirmary is due to take place this weekend. Next month The Royal Hospital for Sick Children, Yorkhill, will move into a dedicated section of the building.

Other complaints which have been raised about the hospital, which is one of the biggest in Europe, have included blocked toilets and a lack of places for staff to eat.

The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) Scotland said it had held an emergency meeting with NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde on Friday over the concerns raised about the South Glasgow University Hospital and the health board had insisted there are no issues with patient safety.

Anne Thomson, senior RCN officer for Greater Glasgow, said: "We are having meetings with health board managers and the director of nursing as a matter of urgency to provide unequivocal reassurance that patient safety is not at any risk while patients and services are being transferred from the old sites to the new hospital.

"But there is a local shortage of domestic staff and vacancy levels in the nursing workforce across Scotland are on the increase.

"We are now seeing the effects of past cuts to the nursing workforce and the nursing student intake, so the problems in the new hospital are part of a wider picture of an NHS struggling to meet growing patient demand."

Theresa Fyffe, director of RCN Scotland added: "We have been saying for some time that the NHS is in an unsustainable position.

"This is because patient demand is going up as a result of our growing, ageing population and the number of people living longer with multiple and complex conditions.

"Whilst the health budget is 'protected' it isn't keeping up with this growth in demand. This growth, combined with past cuts to the nursing workforce, means we are now entering a period where many health services are teetering on the balance.

"The next few months and then next winter will be a big test of just how well the NHS is going to cope with the strains it is under."

One woman described the South Glasgow University Hospital as being like a "war zone" last weekend - a bank holiday - after her terminally-ill husband had to wait eight hours to be admitted.

Annette Leishman said: "The corridors were full of people on trolleys with ambulance men waiting to get them booked in, old people left in corridors and no-one acknowledging anyone because they did not know where they were going."

Jenny Marra, health spokeswoman for Scottish Labour, said they had urged the Scottish Government to consider slowing down the transfer of patients to the new hospital - a call which was rejected by Health Secretary Shona Robison.

"Clearly there will be teething problems with any new hospital, especially one of this size but the pressure is now on the SNP Government to ensure a smooth transition so that patients get the care they need," she said.

Dr Peter Bennie, chairman of BMA Scotland, said: "During this period of significant change it is essential that disruption to patients is kept at a minimum and that staff are fully supported."

Health Secretary Shona Robison said: "We are committed to protecting our NHS, both its workforce and in all the places we deliver care. Central to that is ensuring we have appropriate levels of staff to deliver the right care, in high quality, modern buildings like the £842m new South Glasgow University Hospitals.

"We currently have record numbers of staff working in our NHS, with more than 137,500 whole time equivalent staff in place - an increase of almost 2,500 in the last year alone.

"Under this Government we have also increased the number of qualified nurses and midwives working in the NHS by 5.6 per cent to a new record high level of over 43,000. Earlier this year we announced a three per cent increase in pre-registration student nursing and midwifery intakes - a third successive rise. This is in addition to a six per cent rise in 2014/15.

"This, coupled with our decision to increase the health budget to a record £12 billion, demonstrates this Government's commitment to protecting frontline NHS services and ensuring it is well placed to meet growing demand.

"The new hospital in Glasgow will transform care for thousands of patients. The transfer of services from the old hospitals is obviously a huge and complex operation which the board are overseeing. More staff and services are now transferring to the new site, and while that process is underway we have been in close contact with the board, who have assured us they are focussing on both managing the process and delivering the best possible care to patients."