We certainly have made the Scottish Executive and everybody else sit up and listen.

Dr Jean Turner

Feelings are running high on the issue - 43,000 people signed a petition objecting to the radical plans by Greater Glasgow Health Board and 8,500 postcards of protest were sent to Scottish Health Minister Susan Deacon.

After the result, Dr Turner said it sent a clear message to the Scottish Executive.

She said: "We only started 20 days ago, and goodness knows what we would have done had we had longer.

"We certainly have made the Scottish Executive and everybody else sit up and listen.

"And we have put our particular cause of what the doctors think about the acute services in Glasgow on the map."

Dr Turner, 61, was a GP for 25 years in the Springburn area of Glasgow, and before that worked for 10 years as an anaesthetist.

Her late entry into the election was a bombshell for the established political parties, heightened by the decision of the Scottish Socialist Party to stand down and invite its followers to vote for her.