MSP to quiz minister over NHS Grampian treatment

SHETLAND MSP Tavish Scott will quiz the Scottish Government this week after it was revealed that heart patients from the isles could be offered treatment in Newcastle instead of Aberdeen.

Scottish health secretary Shona Robison confirmed in a letter to Conservative list MSP Jamie Halro Johnston that a service level agreement had been secured which would see NHS Grampian cardiac patients offered treatment at Newcastle’s Freeman Hospital if they had been waiting too long.

Robison said there has been a “backlog of cardiac patients due to staffing difficulties” which meant that some patients at NHS Grampian – which takes in people from the Northern Isles for specialist care – were not guaranteed to receive treatment within the 12 week target.

NHS Grampian said the Newcastle agreement was a “back-up option” which had not yet been utilised.

Scott said he would raise the issue with Robison on Tuesday at the Scottish Parliament and question whether sending patients to England could start to become the norm for other procedures.

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He has also called for NHS Shetland to revise its contractual arrangement which means NHS Grampian is the only other health board isles patients can receive treatment from.

“Health ministers need to explain why patients from the isles now face the possibility of being sent to Newcastle for treatment,” Scott said.

“It is one thing when a patient living in Aberdeen is told that treatment is in Newcastle and not at Forresterhill; but quite another for patients from Shetland.

“Surely the main responsibility of government and their health board is to recruit medical staff to the positions that are vacant at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary. I am concerned that this may be the thin end of the wedge.

“What other medical procedures normally carried out in Aberdeen may be moved to hospitals in the central belt or England? I have many examples of people who are waiting for long periods to be seen in Aberdeen.

“So I expect health ministers to explain what they are now doing to stop this situation getting worse.”