SIX children being treated for cancer and other illnesses at Glasgow's children's hospital have been infected by a bacteria linked to the water supply.

NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde has confirmed new cases following an outbreak between January and June this year which affected a number of children in wards 2A and 2B of the hospital.

Four bone marrow patients have been moved to the adult ward of the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital and 22 further patients and outpatients have been moved to another ward as a precaution.

The health board has launched a new investigation and has called in  experts from across the UK in order to find a "permanent solution" to the problem.

Earlier this year work was carried out to replace metal taps with plastic, filters were attached to the taps and the drains were cleaned with a chlorine based detergent. The ward was also cleaned with Hydrogen Peroxide Vapour (HPV).

After the work was completed the health board said there had been no new cases of bacteraemia for several weeks.

A spokeswoman for NHSGGC said: "More recently there have been six new cases and although all the children have recovered and been discharged or are continuing with their normal treatments we instigated an Incident Management Team to further investigate and manage the situation.

"What we are seeing is a build-up of biofilm in the drains which is the same sort of biofilm we get in domestic sink drains.

"This build up has happened only seven weeks after they were cleaned by HPV.

"We have worked with national experts in Scotland and sought advice from UK experts on the issue as we seek to find a permanent solution and understand why this has happened.

"These wards treat children with cancer who have very low immunity to infections so to let our experts in and put cameras down the drains we need to move the patients.

"Ward 2A has a combination of haemato-oncology patients and other cancer patients.  Four bone marrow patients will move to the bone marrow adult ward (4b) in the adjoining Queen Elizabeth University Hospital (QEUH). 

"The remainder of the 22 patients from ward 2A and the outpatients who attend ward 2B (this is a day case ward with no inpatients) will move to another ward in the QEUH.  

"Patient safety is the one key overriding issue and this temporary move will enable our technical experts to make thorough investigations.

"No other services at the Royal Hospital for Children are affected."