Health Secretary Nicola Sturgeon yesterday overturned the decision to close accident and emergency units at Monklands and Ayr hospitals.

To cheers from campaigners in the public gallery and a mixed reaction on the Labour benches, she said, in her first statement to Holyrood: "It is this government's view that the decisions to close A&E at Monklands and Ayr were wrong and will now be reversed."

Home Secretary John Reid, whose constituency includes Monklands, was one of the first to welcome the move, even though it is the result of the SNP taking power from Labour in the Scottish Parliament.

"It is the outcome that myself and other local representatives have been fighting for," said the former Westminster Health Secretary. "However, I am concerned that much of the detail of the proposal is missing."

Angry exchanges between Ms Sturgeon and Andy Kerr, former Scottish Health Minister, followed her announcement.

Mr Kerr claimed that diluting clinical expertise by keeping two units in Ayrshire and three in Lanarkshire would worsen quality of provision and cost lives.

He also said that ordering the boards into a U-turn was "an empty gesture that ducks responsibility" and he cited Professor David Kerr, who provided the blueprint for Scotland's NHS.

Professor Kerr had called the decision "sentimental, emotional and irrational" and said it would "put patients' lives at risk".

Ms Sturgeon responded that her predecessor's comments were "utterly reprehensible" and "scaremongering of the worst kind" but conceded there were issues around medical staffing.

"No minister can wish away problems of recruitment and retention," she said. "I want us to face up to these challenges in innovative ways that put patients first."

The Health Secretary said the health boards had failed to take local opinion with them - in Ayrshire around issues of geography and transport, in Lanarkshire over diminished emergency care in a deprived area where people needed it most.

She made clear: "Public opinion cannot and should not override genuine concerns about the safety of services, but where there are choices to be made about how services are redesigned to meet the challenges faced by boards then public opinion cannot simply be ignored."

Labour's Karen Whitefield, MSP for Airdrie and Shotts, praised the decision. "I welcome any move to reverse the decision to downgrade Monklands A&E."

With the public sceptical about how genuine consultation exercises are, an independent panel is to be set up to listen to local demands and look at the revised plans which the two health boards have been told to provide by the end of the year.

The Health Secretary also stressed her intention to stick to the principles laid down in the report by Professor Kerr, including the need to centralise such specialisms as cancer care, neurosurgery or heart treatment.

Ms Sturgeon also indicated she would not "unpick" previous controversial decisions such as reduction in Glasgow A&E units.

The Conservative MSP for Ayr, John Scott, said he was delighted by the decision. He added of Ms Sturgeon: "I admire her can-do' attitude."

Plans to improve community health facilities in Lanarkshire and Ayrshire and Arran face disruption because of the U-turn.

Professor Bill Stevely, interim chairman of NHS Ayrshire and Arran, said work on some developments had been suspended until it was clear what was viable.

Earlier this week Dr John Browning, former medical director of NHS Lanarkshire, warned services would collapse if the health board had to continue operating three major emergency hospitals.

Cutting doctors' working hours in line with the increasingly strict European Working Time Directive, ensuring specialists see enough patients to maintain their skills and staff vacancies are among the issues being juggled by both health boards.