Angry scenes are expected as community leaders meet to plan a campaign against proposals to reshape Glasgow's hospital facilities.

The �700m reorganisation plan was approved by Health Minister Malcolm Chisholm last week.

The Greater Glasgow Acute Services Review will see the number of accident and emergency departments cut from five to two.

We are very pleased that MSPs and 230,000 people on the south side of the city are supporting our concerns

Margaret Hinds Glasgow South East Health Forum

Specialist care will be centralised at three sites in the city, while the Western Infirmary faces closure.

Greater Glasgow NHS Board has argued that the proposals will lead to better services for everyone.

However, they have attracted bitter opposition at a local level.

Margaret Hinds, the chairwoman of the Glasgow South East Health Forum, told BBC Radio Scotland that the plans were "nonsensical".

She predicted that a lack of hospital beds experienced during the summer would get worse.

Public meeting

She also warned of the distances which patients would have to travel for treatment.

"It really is a very serious situation and we are very pleased that MSPs and 230,000 people on the south side of the city are supporting our concerns," she said.

A public meeting has been organised by local MSPs at Dixon Hall in Glasgow on Tuesday night.

Those attending the event will discuss how to take forward a campaign against the changes.

Glasgow Royal Infirmary will retain A&E services

The plan follows three years of consultation over proposals to modernise acute services across the city.

Full accident and emergency units will be sited at Glasgow Royal Infirmary and the Southern General.

A �60m investment is planned at Victoria Infirmary and Stobhill Hospital to create two new Ambulatory Care Hospitals providing outpatient consultations and day care surgeries.

Inpatient services will be redeveloped at the Royal Infirmary and Gartnavel General Hospital, and there will also be a major new development at the Southern General Hospital.

All five sites will have orthopaedic outpatient, day case and minor injury units while paediatric accident and emergency services will be provided at the Royal Hospital for Sick Children at Yorkhill.

More beds available

The NHS board argues that the changes are necessary to create centres of excellence with specialist staff - and to fit in with the European Working Time Directive.

Chief executive Tom Divers said the proposals would actually make more beds available for emergency medical patients.

He also stressed that services were being retained on five sites across the city.

"You may have a longer ambulance journey, but our view from the work we have done this far with the ambulance service is that this ambulance journey will still be well within the bounds of safety and acceptability," he told BBC Radio Scotland.

He added that the plans would be kept under review.