Commenting on the news that ICU beds at Ayr Hospital are to be closed, despite Health Secretary Humza Yousaf stating just two months ago that there were “absolutely no plans” to move ICU services away from Ayr, Martin Whitfield MSP said:

“Ayr residents will be shocked and angered by this announcement, coming only weeks after the Health Secretary denied any ICU beds would be lost at Ayr Hospital.

“As my colleague Jackie Baillie has said, this decision is nothing short of a betrayal of the people of Ayrshire by Humza Yousaf.

“This failed Health Secretary is unfit for that office and unfit to be First Minister. We have faced over a year of uncertainty and evasion over the Edington Hospital in North Berwick, and now residents in Ayr face another downgrade.

“Our NHS and our country can ill-afford the damage being done to it by this hopeless and hapless minister.”