It is very positive that Scotland is to continue to have its own heart transplant service

Anne Dundas, patients' representative

She said: "We are determined that the situation will not recur - which is why we have been working hard with the North Glasgow Trust and the National Services Division (NSD) to ensure this service not only reopens for transplants, but becomes a national centre of excellence which can sustain vital services for patients for many years to come."

The minister said that the new team of four consultant surgeons would work with a consultant cardiologist, two transplant co-ordinators and nursing staff.

Glasgow has Scotland's only heart transplant hospital

Mr Murday, who was unable to attend the launch, said: "Over the past year or so the number of donors in Scotland and elsewhere in the UK has fallen.

"Part of the role of the new transplant team will be to address this situation.

"I look forward to working as part of the team to tackle this and to prepare for the first operation in the months ahead."

Announcing plans to enhance the range of services provided by the NHS in Scotland, Ms Deacon said: "We intend to capitalise on that investment (#600,000) and expand the unit's programme so that within the next couple of years it may begin undertaking heart-lung and lung transplants.

'Specialised service'

"We are exploring the possibility that the unit could form the core of a new specialised service for patients with heart failure."

It is hoped that the team will be ready to carry out a transplant, if required, in the next few months.

Alan Faichney, Clinical Director of Cardio-thoracic Surgery, said that the new unit should never experience the problems that it has faced in recent months.

He said: "This time we have put a team together. Were any one individual to leave we would still have cover."

Anne Dundas, spokeswoman for the heart transplant patients' support group, said that she was "delighted" that the unit was ready to resume a full service.

Mrs Dundas, 48, from Blantyre, who underwent a heart transplant at the hospital in 1997, said: "It is very positive that Scotland is to continue to have its own heart transplant service."

While the unit was without a surgeon it remained open to patients for pre and post-operative care.