NHS Forth Valley chiefs have always said the district's new acute hospital has adequate safety measures built in to its design without installing a fire suppression system.

However, their stance has come under attack from the Fire Brigades Union (FBU) and politicians.

The decision by NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde to install 5500 fire sprinklers in its new Southern General Hospital has been applauded by the union with officials repeating their call for NHS Forth Valley to do likewise.

News of the sprinkler installation was revealed in a letter to Falkirk West MSP Michael Matheson.

It stated: "This system will be focused to high dependency and main in-patient areas in both the new children's hospital and the new adult acute hospital."

The MSP said he was convinced that sprinklers are not being installed in the Larbert hospital because it is being built through a public private partnership, rather than public funding as is the case in Glasgow.

He said: "This letter clearly demonstrates that much more could have been done in the new Larbert hospital as regards sprinklers."

Gordon McQuade, Central Scotland FBU branch secretary, said: "Here we have one of the biggest ever building projects in Scotland and they are going to install fire sprinklers in the high dependency and in-patient areas of their new hospital.

''The FBU always said the decision of NHS Forth Valley was down to cost and that excuses being put forward were very poor."

Fiona Mackenzie, NHS Forth Valley chief executive, said: "The fire safety measures planned for the new acute hospital for Forth Valley are integral to the design and meet all current legislation, guidance and good practice.

"Fire safety measures are unique to each building design, and therefore the measures required for a high-rise building, built in a phased way, on an existing site will be quite different from those for a hospital which is not high rise and is built on a green field site."

Last month, revised Government guidelines on NHS fire safety acknowledged that sprinklers had a part to play but stated "there is not a clear case for the generic requirement to install fire suppression systems in hospitals and other healthcare premises".