EMERGENCY out of hours GPs were unavailable across the whole of Inverclyde on 45 occasions in just one year.

Patients were forced to travel to the Royal Alexandra Hospital in Paisley instead to be seen by a doctor at night.

Between November 2017 and 2018, there were 45 instances - almost once a week - when an out-of-hours GP was unavailable.

NHS and Scottish Government officials say it is a nationwide problem because doctors are unwilling to work at late on.

Labour's general election candidate for Inverclyde, Martin McCluskey, uncovered the findings through a freedom of information request.

He said: "This is terrible for patients and for our NHS staff who are stretched to breaking point.

"One person who got in touch told me about a woman with a young child who had to make the trip to Paisley and back in a taxi - a journey that can cost more than £50 - because no doctor was available in Greenock. "Others have told me that GPs who should be based in Inverclyde have been moved to Glasgow when they are short of doctors. "It means a round trip of over 40 miles, in the middle of the night, to see a GP.

"For anyone affected, this is an intolerable situation."

Mr McCluskey blames the SNP for cuts to the the health service but bosses at NHS GGC say they are doing all they can to address the problem.

A health board spokeswoman said: "We want to reassure local patients that GP out of hours services in Glasgow and Clyde are available for anyone who needs to be seen urgently by a GP before their surgery re-opens.

"We have had difficulty in filling every shift across all eight GP out of hours emergency centres that run across the NHS GGC area due to a lack of GPs willing to work the shifts.

"We must stress however that within GGC on every shift there are out of hours emergency GPs working and providing care to GGC patients."

The health board says a home visiting service and transport is available for those unable to leave their homes or without access to transport.

Patients are being advised to phone NHS 24 in the first instance and they will then be referred to their nearest out of hours GP centre.

A Scottish Government spokesperson said: "Whilst we expect all health boards to ensure they can deliver a safe and sustainable out of hours service, we understand that, on occasion, centres may require to temporarily close on the grounds of patient and staff safety.

"The Scottish budget sets out additional funding for frontline NHS boards of £430 million - an increase of 4.2 per cent. "In 2019-20, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde will see £55.6m increased investment and a share of £392m to go towards improving patient outcomes, taking the board's overall funding to over £2.2 billion."