The NHS has vowed to support West Kilbride GP practice after it announced two of its doctors are leaving at the end of this month.
It is a major headache for the surgery as its four doctor service is cut by half, and faces a testing time given the national shortage in GPs. 
From April, the practice will operate an 'on the day' appointment system. There will be a very limited amounts of appointments bookable one week in advance and any follow-up appointments required will be booked by the GP.
A sign was erected at the surgery this week which stated: "Regretfully Dr Sarah Stewart and Dr Stephanie Gillespie will leave the practice at the end of March.
"As most patients are aware, the NHS is facing a massive shortage of doctors wanting to come into general practice.
"As such we are currently finding it extremely difficult to recruit GPs to fill the two vacant GP positions in the surgery.
"This will obviously have a huge impact on the number of appointments we are able to offer over the coming months.
"Available appointments may need to be prioritised and our appointment system will change to prioritise this.
"We apologise for the impact that this is going to have; please try to be patient with us."
Eddie Fraser, Director of Ayrshire Health and Social Care Partnership said: "NHS Ayrshire & Arran and our partners in the Health and Social Care Partnerships are committed to ensuring that people have high quality access to local health and care services.
"Since experiencing recruitment difficulties in replacing GPs, NHS Ayrshire & Arran has been invited by the partners of West Kilbride Medical Practice to work with them in stabilising the Practice.
"By working together, NHS Ayrshire & Arran will offer full support to the partners to allow them to continue to provide clinical general medical services to their patients. Our support will involve assisting with placing locum doctors in the practice and administrative support.
"This is short-term support and everyone involved fully expects the Practice to take back full responsibility as soon as possible.
"There will be no change to the general medical services provided to the patients of West Kilbride Medical Practice."