Doctors withdrawn from Rankin unit in 20 days PREGNANT women will have to travel to Paisley to give birth in 20 days time when doctors are withdrawn from Greenock's Rankin maternity unit.

They will have to make their own way to the Royal Alexandra Hospital by car or public transport unless they are assessed as low risk and are prepared to have their babies delivered by Inverclyde Royal Hospital midwives.

Mums-to-be are being warned if they go into labour after 8am on Friday 31 October they should go straight to Paisley.

Children who are being treated as in-patients at Inverclyde Royal Hospital will have to be transferred to the Royal Alexandra Hospital by ambulance.

The drastic news - announced by NHS Argyll and Clyde - was vigorously condemned by local politicians, who said any reduction in the status of the Rankin should be up to the health minister Malcolm Chisholm, currently reviewing the unit's future.

But health board bosses said the contingency plans had to be introduced because a failure to recruit enough middle-grade paediatricians meant the unit may not be clinically safe.

A spokesman for NHS Argyll and Clyde said: `Since May of this year more than half of the rota has been covered by locums, but there have been great concerns regarding the lack of continuity of care due to the number of different locums that are being used.

`This lack of continuity raises concerns around the clinical safety of the service. Due to this situation Inverclyde Royal Hospital is implementing its contingency plans for the provision of maternity and children's services on 31 October 2003.` Duncan McNeil, MSP for Greenock and Inverclyde, said: `There are those within the community who will see this as a cynical move- and who could blame them? Is it purely a co-incidence that, as the health minister considers whether to approve the health board"s plans, senior clinicians are flexing their muscles in this way?

'They are sending a very clear message - give us what we want, centralise the service in Paisley, or we'll shut it down at the end of the month.` Bruce McFee, SNP MSP for the west of Scotland, added: `This is very, very bad news for the people of Inverclyde.