The next meeting of NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde's health board which was due to take place yesterday (May 16) has now been postponed to June 15, following the calling of the upcoming general election.

The health board says that the decision is in keeping with "national election guidance on agenda items to be considered at Board meetings" during the period of an election.

The meeting was due to discuss the outcome of consultation on proposed service changes - including at the Vale of Leven Hospital - which will now be considered at the June meeting following the conclusion of the election and it is hoped that newly-elected councillors may also have received their appointments to take part in the meeting.

Local MSP Jackie Baillie slammed the further delay to the health board's meeting and said that the health board was trying to "pull the wool" over the eyes of local patients and service users.

She said: “This is the third election since the cuts plans were leaked and local people are still left in the dark on the future of vital local NHS services. Local residents will be furious that the SNP Government and the health board have once again hidden behind a decision on cuts at the Vale of Leven Hospital until after the election.

“The health board will try to hide behind purdah rules but the reality is that the threat of cuts have been hanging over the head of local patients and NHS staff for a year and a half. Instead of hiding from local campaigners, the SNP Health Secretary should have stepped in months ago to reject all of the cuts at the Vale of Leven Hospital.”

Jim Moohan, campaigner from Hospitalwatch, said: "Are they seriously expecting the community here to believe that something isn't going to happen after the election?

"There are cynical cuts worth £169m due to be made across the board and so this is just another cloud over the future of the hospital and a disguise that they are up to no good. This course of centralisation and long-term plans will lead to closures of several hospitals in this area, not just the Vale of Leven."

"The health board have a cynical plan for this hospital and we're now in the second quarter of the financial year and these cuts have yet to made. How are you going to do it in six months?"

The deferred meeting comes after Mr Moohan and other campaigners were set to present the Scottish Government and health secretary Shona Robison with a bedsheet carrying 5,000 signatures from a recent 24-hour vigil held outside the hospital.