Report due on health board

Vale of Leven hospital faces troubled times

People treated by the troubled Argyll and Clyde NHS Board will find out on Monday why services have been performing poorly.

Last week BBC Scotland revealed that four executives within the board were asked to resign ahead of a report on their performance.

Maternity, surgical and psychiatric services in the region have come under pressure amid claims the board offered poor standards of care.

Health Minister Malcolm Chisholm in October ordered a team of trouble-shooters into Argyll and Clyde to investigate reports of managerial infighting and budget problems.

Malcolm Chisholm ordered a review

That report is due to be published at a board meeting on Monday at 1800 GMT, but its contents are so damning that BBC Scotland understands the executives were told to resign or be sacked.

They are understood to be considering severance packages.

Services at one Argyll and Clyde hospital were suspended following the resignation of a doctor two months ago.

The Vale of Leven hospital, in Alexandria, closed its maternity unit until next year after failing to find a replacement for a doctor who resigned.

Public concern

That decision was based, a board spokesman said, "on clinical safety".

Antenatal and postnatal care is still available at Vale of Leven, where about 900 children are born every year.

Emergency surgery was then closed because of the resignations of two surgeons.

Psychiatric services are under strain following the resignation of three out of four psychiatrists in the Lomond area.

One councillor said the public had lost faith in the board to deliver adequate services.