Council leaders in Aberdeen have backed a call to create a major trauma centre in the city.
Labour leader Jenny Laing has supported a motion by Independent deputy Marie Boulton for a letter to be written, urging the Scottish Government to start work on the much-anticipated facility at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary.
The motion will be lodged at the next meeting of the full council on May 11.
Plans were announced in 2014 to establish the facility in the north east, but there is growing concern that Aberdeen could lose out to Edinburgh and Glasgow when the final decision is made.
Constant calls have been made for the decision to be confirmed and, last month, a report from NHS Grampian warned there was a “real risk” to patients if the north-east did not get the life-saving trauma centre it had been promised.
Aberdeen Labour candidate Lewis McDonald’s petition, which called for a guarantee that the centre would be delivered has already gained nearly 3,000 signatures after being launched on March 22.
Health Secretary Shona Robison previously claimed the plans had been put on hold because senior clinicians ha questioned whether the centre in Aberdeen would be viable.
But Ms Laing said the decision could reduce the north-east’s flagship hospital to “district general” status.
She said: “Government ministers insist that no decision has been made, but a decision WAS made in April 2014 and that was to build a major trauma centre in Aberdeen.
“Any move to overturn this would have a devastating impact on ARI, reducing it from probably the best hospital in Scotland to simply an ordinary district general.”
Mrs Boulton added: “We need assurance we will get this life-saving unit in the north-east or people will continue to question the central belt bias of the Scottish Government.”
Conservative group leader, Ross Thomson, confirmed his group in the administration have also backed the motion.
But last night SNP Aberdeen Central candidate Kevin Stewart dismissed the calls for assurances.
He said: “This is total nonsense from the Labour-led administration – who know full well that no decision has yet been reached.
“They are clearly more interested in scare-mongering with issues of substance than they are in supporting local healthcare in Grampian.
“The Scottish Government is developing a new major trauma network in which Aberdeen will play its part and I look forward to seeing what final decision is made on the shape of these services.”