BBC News Online: UK: Scotland

Hospital campaign shakes by-election

Labour held onto the Scottish parliamentary seat of Strathkelvin and Bearsden, which had been vacated by the former Scottish Executive minister Sam Galbraith.

But the campaign by retired GP Jean Turner to save Stobhill Hospital in North Glasgow won her second place and more than 7,500 votes.

Dr Turner campaigned to ensure that acute services are not taken away from the hospital in Springburn, which is not within the constituency but used by constituents.

After the result, Dr Turner said it sent a clear message to the Scottish Executive.

She said: "We only started 20 days ago, and goodness knows what we would have done had we had longer.

"We certainly have made the Scottish Executive and everybody else sit up and listen.

"And we have put our particular cause of what the doctors think about the acute services in Glasgow on the map."

Dr Turner, 61, was a GP for 25 years in the Springburn area of Glasgow, and before that worked for 10 years as an anaesthetist.

Her late entry into the election was a bombshell for the established political parties, heightened by the decision of the Scottish Socialist Party to stand down and invite its followers to vote for her.