Health chiefs have apologised to staff for a crisis at a hospital in the west of Scotland.

Managers of the Vale of Leven Hospital in West Dunbartonshire said solutions would be found to staffing shortages that threaten to close the hospital.

One general surgeon consultant retired in the summer and the area is now short of eight consultants in a range of specialties.

At a highly-charged meeting 42 GPs and consultants warned that the hospital could close if it loses any more key staff.

We have no intention of closing services at the Vale of Leven hospital

Richard Brown, medical director of acute services

It is believed that a second general consultant is about to quit the hospital after being offered a job elsewhere.

This would leave just two on-call surgeons at the hospital which serves 80,000 people over a wide area from Loch Lomond to Oban.

It is a situation which staff had predicted would lead to the hospital's closure.

But managers said that would not be allowed to happen.

Richard Brown, medical director of acute services, told BBC Scotland: "We have no intention of closing services at the Vale of Leven hospital."

Staff shortages

He said that being short of consultants was a "fact of life" for hospitals across Scotland.

"The shortages that we have got are in specialties which are generally across Scotland shortage specialties."

He said everything possible would be done to fill the posts.

Changes in personnel

The Beatson Oncology Centre in Glasgow, the largest cancer treatment facility in Scotland, has also struggled to attract new consultants.

At the Vale of Leven, the maternity unit closed because of staff shortages and other key consultant posts remain unfilled.

John Mullin, chairman of the health board, and David Sillito, chief executive of Argyll & Clyde Acute Trust, attended the meeting on Wednesday night.

A health board spokesman said: "The circumstances at the Vale reflect trends across the country of difficulties in recruitment, increasing sub-specialisation, the move to a larger clinical teams."

However, the health board said despite changes in personnel the hospital had managed to sustain and develop many services.

The trust is currently looking for staff to enable the Vale of Leven maternity unit to be reopened.