Premature twin babies who were sent to a hospital 87 miles away have finally been moved to beds closer to home.

The parents of Harris and Cole Cox were forced to travel eight hours on public transport just to spend two hours at the infants’ bedsides every day.

David and Karen Surgenor, both 39, had to leave their home at 9.25am and travel to Victoria Hospital in Kirkcaldy, Fife, using two trains and a bus each way.

The couple struggled to make the journey while balancing their other eight children between them, the youngest of whom is just 14 months old, and four others are still at school.

Harris and Cole were expected to arrive later this month at the Royal Alexandra Hospital in Paisley by a planned caesarian operation. But on September 23, Karen’s waters broke, the Daily Record reports.

Harris and Cole were expected to arrive later this month at the Royal Alexandra Hospital in Paisley by a planned caesarian operation

There was no room at the hospital and she was sent to Wishaw General in Lanarkshire, and the twins were then moved to Fife because NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde had no space.

The decision resulted in a gruelling 174-mile-round trip every day for their parents.

Self-employed painter and decorator David had found it almost impossible to work with the long journey, only managing a couple of hours a day before setting off on their marathon trek.

Scottish Labour’s health spokeswoman Jackie Baillie demanded the health board “urgently relocate the twins to a hospital much nearer the family” and said the problem was caused by “insufficient staffing and special care baby unit beds”.

Since then, the RAH have arranged for the boys to be transferred there (
Image:
Google)

Since then, the RAH have arranged for the boys to be transferred there – much closer to the family’s home in Helensburgh, Argyll.

David added: “The ambulance took Karen and Cole to the RAH first and then it came back for me and Harris.

“It will be so much easier to visit now and we will feel happier being able to ask people to give us a lift when it is only 40 minutes away.

“Karen plans to go up during the day on her own now and I’ll go up when I finish work for a couple of hours. It will be good to be able to get back to work.

“And with the other children it means we won’t have to try to split ourselves in two.

“We will have more time for them too.”

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