GLASGOW'S new £100m children's hospital to replace Yorkhill Sick Kids will not open until at least four years after the Queen Mother's Maternity has closed and moved to the Southern General.

The new hospital was to be built by 2011, providing the triple boost of maternity, children's and adult acute services on one site, following the closure of the Queen Mum's at the end of this year.

Experts say having all the services on one site will allow doctors, nurses and midwives to give mums and babies with serious health problems the best chance of survival.

However, the Evening Times can reveal the completion date is now 2014, three years later than originally expected, and a contractor has yet to be appointed to build the facility.

The original date was announced by the health board and ministers, following the successful Evening Times Campaign to safeguard the life-saving "umbilical cord" link between the maternity unit and children's hospital.

The link is named after the corridor which connects the sick kids' hospital with the Queen Mum's. Working as a single team has allowed the medical staff at the two Yorkhill hospitals to save the lives of countless critically-ill babies.

Politicians, parents, midwives and doctors supported the campaign to protect the link, which then health minister Malcolm Chisholm backed.

He provided the £100m for the "gold standard" of keeping the children's service with maternity and placing them on site with adult acute services to ensure the best possible option for mothers and babies.

Now the health board and government have admitted the children's hospital, to be built at the Southern General, will not be ready for patients until 2014.

Health Secretary Nicola Sturgeon said in response to a parliamentary question the gap would be four years.

She said the building should be completed in 2013 with patients treated in 2014.

Ms Sturgeon said when the maternity closes, the specialist services will be split up.

She said: "When the Queen Mother's closes, their special care neo-natal services will transfer to the Southern General and Princess Royal Maternity.

"The combined medical and surgical intensive-care service will remain at the Royal Hospital for Sick Children, Yorkhill, until the new children's hospital opens at the Southern General.

"There will be a period of four years between the Queen Mother's closure and the new children's hospital opening. Clinical staff fully accept this service model for the gap period."

Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow Kelvin, which includes the Yorkhill site, campaigned for the link to be retained. She said: " I am astonished it will be four years without an integrated service.

"Along with others I fought long and hard to ensure the integration was retained. We accepted there would be a short gap and it was thought it would be one year.

"Ministers and the health board owe people an explanation as to why this has quadrupled and why the hospital will not be built by 2011 as originally stated."

The delay means babies in need of specialist treatment at Yorkhill will be transferred by ambulance across the city, through the Clyde Tunnel, from the Southern General, for four years.

Ms McNeill added: "I am concerned this means babies will be transported across the city to the sick kids' hospital and women will not be able to deliver on the same site as they would have before."

The triple co-location by 2011 was heralded as the best possible outcome for services when it was announced in 2006.

When the go-ahead was given for the £100m hospital Andy Kerr, Mr Chisholm's successor as health minister, said it was the "gold standard option".

He said: "The next step is for Glasgow to get moving on a detailed plan, so we can have this service in place by 2010/11."

Since then, however, the time-scale has been reviewed.

On their website NHS Greater Glasgow still give conflicting information on when the hospital will open and a new statement gives no definite date.

One page says 2011, while another states 2013. However, the Health Secretary makes it clear patients will not be treated there until early 2014.

Visitors to the website can read: "A dedicated project team has been formed to plan the new children's hospital, which is due to be completed by 2011."

The health board is inviting tenders for the design and build of the new hospital tomorrow.

The business case for the hospital was only approved in May last year, more than two years after the government approved funding. It will now be the end of this year before a preferred bidder is announced.

A health board spokeswoman said: "While it is difficult to put a definitive timescale on the completion of this major project, the expectation is that the children's hospital will be completed by 2014."

A Scottish Government spokeswoman said: "There has been no four-year delay' on the new Glasgow children's hospital.

"The outline business case was approved by the Scottish Government in April 2008. Since then a considerable amount of planning has been carried out, including putting together a provisional timetable. This timetable, reviewed in January 2009, expects the new children's hospital to be completed in 2014. This has not changed."

The link between the maternity and the children's hospital was key to the campaign and the decision to spend £100m creating A "world-class integrated women's and children's hospital in Glasgow", according to Professor Andrew Calder, who chaired a government review into the closure.

Health bosses decided Glasgow could only sustain two maternity units, with the Queen Mum's the preferred for closure.

Maintaining the link was the catalyst for a massive show of public support for the Evening Times campaign, with 156,000 people signing a petition which was delivered to the health minister. Our hands-on campaign

TEN years ago health bosses in Glasgow decided the city needed only two maternity units and four years later set up a task force to advise which should close.

In October 2003 the group, chaired by Professor Margaret Reid, recommended the Queen Mother's transfer to the Southern General and suggested Yorkhill Sick Children's hospital also moved.

However, the same month the health board accepted Prof Reid's recommendation to close the Queen Mum's but not to move Yorkhill.

The Evening Times launched the Hands Off Yorkhill campaign to maintain the life-saving link between the hospitals.

Over the next year the campaign gathered a huge petition with almost 160,000 signatures against the plans.

Parents, doctors midwives and nurses joined politicians in backing our campaign and calling for the plans to be rejected.

A packed public meeting at the Mitchell Theatre in Glasgow heard passionate pleas to save the link ... however, the health board did not attend.

In April 2004 the health board ignored the pleas and backed the plan to close the Queen Mum's.

Five months later the campaign achieved a victory as Malcolm Chisholm, health minister, rejected the plans and announced a £100million children's hospital with all services on one site with an advisory group to decide on the location.

In March 2006 the group recommended the new hospital at the Southern General, to be built by 2011, with the Queen Mother's closing between 2007 and 2009.