SCOTTISH Labour has been told to apologise to NHS staff after turning their hospital into “a political football”.

The calls from the SNP candidate for Dumbarton, Toni Giugliano, come after the Labour party’s Scottish leadership took part in a photoshoot outside the Vale of Leven hospital in Alexandria.

Jackie Baillie, Labour’s deputy leader, is running against Giugliano for the Dumbarton constituency seat in Holyrood, a seat she has held since 1999 but won by just 109 votes in 2016.

In a video posted to Twitter, Baillie says she will do “everything I can” to protect services at the Vale of Leven. The video opens by saying that there has been a “lot of fear and anxiety” caused by the loss of the A&E at the hospital, but makes no mention of the fact that it was a Labour government which had overseen its removal.

Giugliano said: "You know Labour are on the ropes when they organise photo ops outside the Vale of Leven Hospital before an election. Labour downgraded the Vale and removed the A&E - and then spent over a decade portraying the hospital as vulnerable for political gain.

“They should apologise to the staff for turning the hospital into a political football.”

The Vale of Leven Hospital was first downgraded from a full District General Hospital under a Scottish Labour government in 2003. This followed the removal of emergency surgery capability and the associated axing of the Accident and Emergency unit.

However, it has also been further downgraded since then, with 24-hour anaesthetics and adult in-patient mental health care being taken from the hospital under an SNP government in 2009.

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Dr Gwen Jones-Edwards, a former clinical director at NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, said the present Scottish Government had stabilised the Vale of Leven Hospital after it had been downgraded by the previous Labour one.

However, she also said that the “excellent” hospital “provides care that is consistent with modern medicine – the type of medicine that we practice today which does not consist of having major accident and emergency units in each and every hospital”.

Jones-Edwards went on: “This hospital now has a stable and bright future and to be quite honest it takes an enormous amount of work from major hospitals - without this hospital others wouldn’t be able to function.

"There is a raft of new services that have come to the hospital. We need to inform the community about the services that are available at the Vale".

Giugliano added: "The SNP created 15 new services at the Vale since 2015 - which demonstrates that the hospital has a stable and bright future. As a mental health worker local people can be sure that if I'm elected I'll be the hospital's biggest champion and advocate for the expansion of even more services.

"NHS staff at the Vale will also benefit from a 4% pay rise in comparison to the disgraceful 1% being offered to staff in England."

Nurses, paramedics and domestic staff are among those who could receive the 4% boost to their salaries, but the offer has not been extended to include doctors, dentists, executives and senior managers.

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The GMB Union claims the 4% pay rise is a “pre-election punt” from the SNP and has urged its members to reject the extra cash, claiming it does not properly value them and “doesn’t secure their future”.’ Baillie previously tweeted: “Our NHS needs people to fight for it. I will always fight passionately for the Vale of Leven hospital, because it’s our hospital.”

In a separate post, alongside a picture of an NHS staff member and herself holding a rainbow over the head of party leader Anas Sarwar, Baillie wrote: “Fantastic to be joined by @AnasSarwar this morning at the wonderful Vale of Leven hospital.

“Staff at the Vale, and across Scotland, have worked non-stop to keep us safe and protected. They deserve a national NHS recovery plan so that we have a health service fit for the future.”

Scottish Labour has been contacted for comment.