A Dundee GP centre will become the first in Scotland to fall under the crisis management of a government flagship integration joint board.
But doubts remain about who is ultimately responsible for the fortunes of the Lochee practice when the public sector takes control of it in March.
Integration of health and social care is one of the SNP’s major planned reforms.
Yet assimilating council run care services with the local NHS is not without teething problems and confusion still reigns at Holyrood about who will sort out faltering surgeries.
Health Secretary Shona Robison insisted Tayside health board would take charge but that did not satisfy Jenny Marra, the city-based Labour shadow minister.
Dundee East MSP Ms Robison said: “Although services come together through integration, the employment status of each group of staff remains the same and their employer remains either the local authority or the health board.
“In this case, I understand that NHS Tayside will be the employer of three GPs at the practice.
“The other staff at the practice will be transferred into the employment of the health board,” added Ms Robison.
Ms Marra pointed out Lochee will be the first time a GP practice has been taken under the control of the integration joint board.
She expressed concerns about the dry run happening in an area of high deprivation and questioned.
“It’s not clear whose legal responsibility this is,” she told The Courier. “Why should it be one of the poorest communities in the city and the country which is the guinea pig for this muddle where there’s no clear plan for how this works?”