INVERCLYDE'S MSP says he has now accepted there will no longer be a full GP out-of-hours service in the district.

Following the controversial 'temporary' suspension of the service four years ago there was a huge outcry locally, with a 6,000-strong petition demanding its immediate return.

A year ago the Tele revealed that bosses from NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde health board had no plans to fully reinstate the service and wanted to make the out of hours service only available locally for a few hours at the weekend.

Board bosses had instead made plans to ask patients to travel to centres in Paisley or Glasgow when GP surgeries are closed.

On the back of this MSP Stuart McMillan hit out in a letter to the board's chief executive, accusing the health board of 'appearing to put the health of Glasgow and Paisley patients ahead of Inverclyde.”

Following an intervention from Health Improvement Scotland on the back of concerns raised by health board member and local Councillor Martin McCluskey, health chiefs were forced to hold a full round of public consultations about their proposal.

All of the elected members on Inverclyde Council have opposed the cuts.

With the public consultation now at an end Mr McMillan - who previously called for the service to be fully reinstated - now says he would now like to see GP out-of-hours service in operation here all weekend instead.

The MSP said: "As I’ve said before, I accept that we are not going to have a GP out-of-hours centre in the IRH that is open during all the out-of-hours times.

"What I do think is a reasonable ask, however, is for an extension of the existing hours in operation at the IRH.

"Saturday mornings and public holidays are not enough. I’d like to see this facility in operation all weekend."

During the public consultation sessions, led by NHS GGC clinical director Thomas Gilhooly, bosses explained the centres would be in Paisley and Glasgow as the two areas with the biggest population.

In a presentation they stated that around five per cent of all 15,000 out-of-hours appointments across the board come from Inverclyde and said there was access available to patient transport.

Mr McMillan has highlighted how GPs felt the original system was not safe as staff were working alone and that only 38 per cent of patients have to go to face to face appointments out-of-hours.

He added: “That being said, I recognise there is appetite locally for an expansion of the proposed GP out-of-hours service in Inverclyde, and I too think this would help improve health outcomes for our community, which is why I’ll be writing to NHS GGC to ask what the outcome of the consultation was and whether any changes will be made as a result."

Questions have been raised about the fact that a full GP out-of-hours centre will remain at Vale of Leven Hospital across the water, but not in Inverclyde.

But Mr McMillan says this is a different case due to the status of that facility.

He said: "Effectively, because the Vale of Leven is a community hospital and therefore does not have an A&E department, it is one of the GP out-of-hours centres. It is therefore not a comparable situation.”