Medical centres that provide out of hours care to Glasgow city were closed on the busiest night of the week after not enough doctors were 'willing to work'.
Only one emergency unit was open after NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde said it did not have enough doctors on shift to staff its centres between midnight on Saturday and 07.59am on Sunday.
Whilst every effort was made to fill the shift, patients requiring out of hours treatment had to travel to the Lomond primary care emergency centre at Vale of Level hospital in West Dunbartonshire.
Those requiring urgent medical care were asked to go to accident and emergency, and a home visiting service was available.
Read more: The doctor won't see you now: Glasgow facing out-of-hours GP crisis
A spokesperson for NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde said: "Due to a shortage of GPs willing to work we had no choice but to only provide a Home Visiting service on Saturday night between midnight and 07:59am on Sunday morning except for one Centre at the Vale of Leven.
"Patients should always contact NHS24 first and they will direct the patient to the most appropriate healthcare service for their needs after being fully assessed."
The situation has been slammed by Glasgow Labour MSP Anas Sarwar. He said: “It is unbelievable that there was no GP out of hours service in Glasgow on Saturday night.
"This meant that patients would have to travel to Dumbarton, more pressure on NHS 24 and also increasing the risk of patients presenting at already overstretched A&E departments.
Read more: Public must share blame for Glasgow's out-of-hours GP crisis - because patients ‘abuse’ the system
"This just puts even more pressure on staff and longer waiting times.
"The Health Secretary and Health Board must set out what they are doing to make sure this is a one-off and not a pattern caused by a failure to properly workforce plan.”
Similar situations occurred last year, with a Freedom of Information request revealing centres in Glasgow were left without staff more than 200 times.
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