NHS Grampian position 'very busy and challenging'

NHS Grampian continues to be in a "very busy and challenging" position as the winter period bites, its chief executive has said.

The health board declared a critical incident last month.

It saw some ambulance patients diverted to hospitals outside its area due to demand at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary (ARI). It was later stood down.

NHS Grampian chief executive Adam Coldwells told BBC Scotland News they were seeking extra beds to improve capacity.

Mr Coldwells was speaking after the board met and discussed its winter planning.

"We ran the critical incident just for about 48 hours, which allowed us to create capacity in the hospital that allowed us to go back to business as usual," he said.

"We've made some improvements in the ambulance queuing, but we still experience ambulance queuing on a very regular basis."

Patients were diverted to Dundee and Inverness where clinically appropriate, although life-saving care was still delivered at ARI.

The situation remains "very busy, very challenging" for teams and patients alike, he said.

He said capacity was a key issue, and needed to be bigger.

NHS Grampian is seeking about 120 extra beds, with 30 of those already in place.

"The critical incident was an issue we absolutely had to pick up, and of course I am very sorry to anyone that was affected by that, anyone that had to go out of area or had procedures postponed," he said.

"My sincere apologies to them and I hope they can understand the position we were in.

"And to add to that, the efforts of our staff, everyone absolutely went the extra mile."

Health Secretary Neil Gray has said he wants to avoid further critical incidents at emergency departments this winter.

Senior NHS Grampian clinicians formally raised concerns with management about an "intolerable" level of risk three months before the critical incident was declared.

BBC Scotland News revealed that a letter from members of the Medicine and Unscheduled Care (MUSC) leadership team back in August warned that not enough was being done to meet the expected increase in demand over winter.

NHS Grampian said the points in the letter had been considered and "enormous challenges" were being faced by its teams.

The critical incident led to some elective procedures and appointments being postponed, but not for cancer treatment and diagnostic tests.

BMA Scotland said it was "extremely concerned" by the timing of incident, ahead of the busy winter season.