A ward at Scotland's biggest children's hospital has closed due to a staffing shortage.

Ward 1A at the Royal Hospital for Children in Glasgow will not open again until Monday, July 17, after closing earlier this week.

The affected ward is used for day surgery patients and sleep studies.

NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde claims the closure is due to fewer planned surgeries but patients are understood to have been told a shortage of nurses is the reason behind the ward shutting.

Labour health spokesman Anas Sarwar said: "This is unbelievable.

"It is a shocking decision just as we enter into the summer holidays. This is supposed to be Scotland's flagship hospital.

"But because of the SNP's mismanagement of our NHS and poor workforce planning, we've seen a children's ward having to close because of staff shortages.

"We have been saying for months that our NHS work-force are undervalued, under-resourced and overworked."

Kevin Hill, women and children's services director at the health board, added: "This is a five-day ward and the decision to temporarily suspend activity for the first two weeks of the summer holidays was taken due to significant decrease of planned patient activity throughout the Royal Hospital for Children and enables us to also meet the higher level of requests for annual leave from our clinical staff.

"The hospital typically experiences a decrease in planned patient numbers during July due to summer holidays.

"The small group of patients who use the sleep service have already had appointments scheduled from July, 17, onwards."

A Scottish Government spokesman said: "The board have been clear that the ward, which admits patients for planned or scheduled care, will reopen a week on Monday."