The health minister said a fresh start was required

Andy Kerr said the health board, which stretches from Paisley to Campbeltown and the inner Hebrides, would be split between two neighbouring boards.

Services within the boundaries of the Argyll and Bute Council area will be run by NHS Highland. The rest will be run by NHS Greater Glasgow.

The board, which serves 420,000 people, was �80m in the red.

Ministers decided there was no prospect of balancing the books and the debt will be written off.

Mr Kerr said that redrawing the boundaries would make no change to the services that people currently accessed.

'Service delivery'

He said: "Making boundaries match those of local authorities means much smoother and more integrated planning of services in the future.

"So much of service delivery depends on councils and health boards working hand in hand. It therefore makes sense to match boundaries.

"Nothing we are announcing today changes the fact that patients will continue to use hospital services where they always have done."

Problems within the Argyll and Clyde board emerged in 2002 with the resignation of four top executives and the arrival of a team sent in by the Scottish Executive to sort out the problems.