AYRSHIRE and Arran's top NHS official has promised that the service is fully committed to Ayr Hospital - despite ongoing concerns about its future.

Claire Burden, chief executive of NHS Ayrshire and Arran, told members of the area's health board that the continued rumours over critical and emergency services in Ayr were "untrue" -  and insisted that the NHS could not afford to see a "downgrade" in Ayr.

She insisted the pressures currently being faced at the hospital are down to staffing and recruitment.

Ms Burden said: “I feel it is important that I cover the constant concerns for critical care and emergency at Ayr Hospital.

“Despite our best efforts, we continue to have issues raised by staff members, members of parliament, local representatives and the press.

“Ayr Hospital is an essential part of our estate and we cannot live without it.

“The idea we could lose the estate, or downgrade, is not something we could tolerate as a system. ”

Ms Burden, who was appointed to the role in November 2021, admitted there are issues around maintaining the two separate sites that make up Ayr Hospital - and said they see medical, clinical and support teams "regularly spread too thinly".

She continued: “We have two teams with typically low staff numbers and that is where the mitigation plan comes in.

“Emergency and critical teams are at minimal and low staffing level .

“That is the only reason why we working with them to find solutions. Those solutions are requiring us to work differently and that is unnerving for staff.”

The chief executive said that she expected the issue to continue over the next year.

She said: “I imagine that these ‘mushrooms’ will continue to happen.

"We are as close as we can be to support staff in this phase, but I do appreciate minimal staff teams will be concerned because we are asking them to work differently.”

Tackling the continuing problem of delays in patients leaving hospital to return to their community was key, she said.

"Running a hospital is not solely medical and clinical services," she continued. 

"It is everything else that wraps round, including getting people home safely.

“We talk regularly about delayed transfer of care. That is 20 per cent of our bed base. But it is 20 per cent, and 80 per cent of patients go home.”

Ms Burden said that the shared ambition of the NHS and the three Ayrshire health and social care partnerships is to reduce the average length of stay.

“This will help us reduce delayed transfer and reduce bed days and help reduce the beds that remain unfunded.

“There is a longer length of stay in Ayrshire than in many other systems.

“Some of the highest delayed discharges are most notably in South Ayrshire, moving into North Ayrshire.

“That really does pick out the pressures in  our system. We are very cognisant that care home, residential home and community services are under exceptional pressure.

“I am grateful for people’s patience and support while we work through this.

Acknowledging the impact on staff, she added; “This is a supported process and is possibly going to be another year in the making.

“We can but hope as get into the new year, despite our estate, we will be able to attract people in this single model two sites operation model.”