A north-east MSP has demanded answers from the Scottish Government after new figures revealed NHS Grampian has continued to lag behind the rest of the country.
Documents released by the board ahead of its meeting today show hospitals in the area are behind the national average in treatment time guarantees as well as waiting times for cancer patients and those awaiting a diagnosis.
A shortage of GPs is continuing to plague the area as 27% of practices have a recorded vacancy.
North-east MSP Jenny Marra said the time for “continual promises” was over.
She said: “The SNP government promised people served by NHS Grampian that things would improve but again we see persistent problems with GP coverage and their law on treatment time guarantees being breached again.
“The time for continual promises is over and the SNP need to explain why these results for NHS Grampian have not improved.”
Professor Jamie Weir, chairman of the Patient Action Co-ordination Team (Pact), said historic low levels of funding were to blame for the poor performance.
He said: “The figures are not good from a patient’s point of view because it means they will be waiting longer for treatment which means their condition will have time to deteriorate.
“Both NHS Highland and NHS Tayside receive more per person per year.
“The figures are around £180 per person lower here.
“This stems from the Arbuthnott Formula, which was set up in the 1980s.
“It measures deprivation and gives health funding accordingly, but one of the measures is whether people own a car, but most people in the north-east have a car because you can’t get around otherwise.
“Until the funding reaches the levels of other boards there will be vacancies which will only put more strain on the staff who work here.”
But health secretary Shona Robison claimed the Scottish Government was investing record amounts in NHS Grampian.
She said: “To help NHS Grampian achieve this we have increased their funding by £55 million in 2016-17, bringing the board’s overall funding to a record high of £882.3 million.
“The numbers of GPs working in NHS Grampian have increased by almost 10 per cent during the life time of this Government, and we have committed to increase the national number of GP training places from 300 to 400 a year.”
