A life saving flying doctor service is expected to be rolled out across the whole of Scotland, costing about £2 million a year, to help more patients get earlier access to vital treatment.

Currently, 14 doctors work part-time with the service, based at the SAS helipad in Glasgow.

Patients who would otherwise have died had been saved because of the Emergency Medical Retrieval Service.

Alasdair Corfield, a Consultant in Emergency Medicine who works with the EMRS, said he was delighted that it was being rolled out across remote and rural Scotland.

EMRS doctors helped retrieve 356 patients, since the pilot began in June 2008 to the end of November.

Dr. Corfield, working in A&E at the Royal Alexandra Hospital in Paisley, said, "Anecdotally I can think of patients who would not have survived".

Dr. Corfield said that mainly the incidents included incidents cases of road accidents, people falling on mountains and other cases with head injuries, as well as patients with suspected heart attacks, meningitis and food poisoning.

Health Secretary Nicola Sturgeon said, "That's where the EMRS comes in, flying experienced A&E or intensive care consultants to patients in remote and rural communities".