Under threat A&E units retained

Services at Monklands Hospital will be expanded

Casualty units in Ayrshire and Lanarkshire will be retained and expanded, the government has announced.

Ministers had already rejected the previous Labour-Liberal Democrat administration's decision to close A&E departments at Ayr and Monklands.

Health Secretary Nicola Sturgeon told parliament she had accepted health board plans for retaining the units.

The previous decision to close them provoked a storm of protest from local residents and groups.

An independent review commissioned by the current government later ruled there was "no convincing case" for closing the A&Es.

Reversal welcomed

Ms Sturgeon told the Scottish Parliament: "There is little doubt that the original consultations in Ayrshire and Lanarkshire and the subsequent decisions made by the boards compromised the trust, faith and confidence local people had in their NHS.

"And the fact that the previous administration, notwithstanding the lack of any clear and robust evidence base, was prepared to sanction the closure of these accident and emergency units quite simply beggars belief."

The plans include increasing on-site consultant cover at Ayr from eight to 12 hours a day, seven days a week and, at Monklands, a new emergency response centre will speed patients' access to care.

The proposals from NHS Lanarkshire and NHS Ayrshire and Arran will also mean no cuts to existing services.

Ayrshire and Arran's plans for mental health services and for a cancer centre at Ayr hospital will also go ahead.

The decision to close the A&E unit at Monklands prompted protests

Lanarkshire will also open a cancer centre and proceed with on-site haematology inpatient services.

Labour health spokeswoman Margaret Curran called for guarantees that primary care investment would go ahead at Kilsyth health centre, Cumbernauld minor injuries unit and Lanark minor injuries unit.

The Tories' Mary Scanlon welcomed the reversal and urged Ms Sturgeon to look again at possible downgrading at the Vale of Leven Hospital, Alexandria, although a decision has yet to be made.

Ross Finnie, the Liberal Democrat health spokesman, questioned whether the extensive Kerr blueprint on the future of the NHS could still be a template if it got A&E so "spectacularly wrong".

Ms Sturgeon said the need for changes to be based on evidence was "at the heart" of the Kerr report.