The chief executive of Scotland's biggest health board is to leave his post next year after a controversial seven-year reign.
Tom Divers led NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, overseeing the merger of NHS Greater Glasgow - which he took over in November 2001 - with NHS Argyll and Clyde in 2006. He will retire on March 31, 2009.
Board chairman Andrew Robertson described the 57-year-old as an "inspiring" leader, who guided the organisation through an unprecedented period of change.
However, an SNP source told The Herald that Mr Divers had been under pressure to quit for some time, saying there was "no love lost" between him and Scottish Health Secretary Nicola Sturgeon.
The MSP, who did not wish to be named, also accused Mr Divers of allowing his senior planning director Catriona Renfrew to push through an array of unpopular policies, such as the closure and downgrading of various A&E and maternity units in Glasgow.
Announcing his retirement, Mr Divers said: "Leading NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde is a role I view as the pinnacle of one of the most privileged careers which any NHS manager can have experienced.
"The time has now come when I should step aside into retirement from the NHS and leave it to a fresher, more energised successor to take forward the board's key objectives over the next five years."
Mr Divers has spent more than 30 years in health management, beginning his career as a graduate trainee in 1975.
His major appointments included unit manager at Gartnavel General and the Western Infirmary in Glasgow, and director of planning and contracts at Greater Glasgow Health Board.
He was also general manager of Lanarkshire Health Board for five years, before returning to Glasgow in 2001.
Health Secretary Nicola Sturgeon said: "Tom Divers has served Scotland's NHS well for more than 30 years.
"During his time at NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde he has led the health board through periods of often considerable change."
Mr Divers' period at the helm of NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde was overshadowed by the controversy surrounding Ms Renfrew, the board's director of corporate planning and policy.
One of his last appointments was to make her lead director of Glasgow's Community Health and Care Partnerships (CHCP).
She had previously been head of the Glasgow West CHCP, but was moved on after taking an extended period of leave.
Describing Ms Renfrew's relationship with Mr Divers, the MSP said: "Tom Divers went along with even her most unpopular policies, policies that the people of Glasgow could not tolerate.
"And now they are left with a hospital network that is lacking key services, such as local A&E and maternity care."
In 2003, the then Greater Glasgow Health Board announced plans to close the Queen Mother's maternity hospital in Glasgow, a decision which caused public outcry in the city. More than 150,000 people signed a petition against the move.
A year later, following a campaign by The Herald's sister paper the Evening Times, then health minister Malcolm Chisholm reversed the decision, although the services currently provided by Yorkhill children's hospital and the Queen Mother's maternity unit will be transferred to the new "super campus" Southern General Hospital due to be completed at a cost of £843m by 2013.
In 2004, Michael McMahon MSP, then convener of the petitions committee, attacked NHS Greater Glasgow's record on public consultations.
Mr McMahon said: "I can't recall any consultation that NHS Greater Glasgow has done that has retained the confidence of the people of Glasgow.'' The most recent controversy concerning NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde was the C Difficile outbreak at Vale of Leven Hospital in West Dunbartonshire, which led to a clash with Ms Sturgeon.
Mr Divers apologised to patients and families after 18 people who died after picking up the superbug.
Families of seven of nine victims who died as a direct result of the infection later announced they intended to pursue NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde through the courts.
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