Health Secretary Alex Neil faints in ERI surgery

HEALTH Secretary Alex Neil passed out in seconds as he watched live kidney swap surgery at Edinburgh’s Royal Infirmary.

The minister went “white as a sheet” before he fainted in front of baffled medics, moments after a surgeon made an incision.

Onlookers said Mr Neil – who pledged to visit frontline NHS staff – had to be helped out of the theatre on to a trolley.

A government spokesman tried to play down the incident but the Airdrie and Shotts MSP joked: “I wanted to go back to the floor, but not literally.”

The incident is not the first PR gaffe that Mr Neil has endured - he was criticised for sitting on a hospital bed during another visit, inadvertantly flouting official advice.