A senior consultant has raised questions over NHS Grampian’s planned £2 million shake-up of front-line care in Aberdeen Royal Infirmary (ARI).
At a meeting yesterday, health chiefs unanimously approved plans to revamp the hospital’s “front door” services.
Acute care or, short-term, treatment will be provided in a rapid assessment clinic on an outpatient basis.
A medical high dependency unit, which has already been launched, will also be operated in the hospital to treat critically ill patients.
The third aspect of the plan is to expand the acute care of the elderly team to allow staff to more efficiently discharge able patients back into the community.
Newly appointed medical director Dr Nick Fluck told board members the plans were “absolutely the first step in a long journey.”
However, one senior consultant told board members he had concerns over, what he claimed, was a lack of consultation with the emergency department.
Speaking after the meeting, Dr Izhar Khan said there were still major issues with the hospital’s acute and emergency services that remained unresolved.
Dr Khan said: “I think the point we need to make is all consultants welcome this funding from NHS Grampian.
“We have been saying over the last two years that we need to invest in the HDU [high dependancy unit] and the emergency department.
“It’s not just a matter of recruiting consultants, it’s also about retaining those that you already have.”
Yesterday, the Press and Journal revealed Dr Khan and other senior medical staff had called a meeting of 300 hospital consultants at the ARI this Tuesday to call for urgent improvements to the health board management.
“While we welcome any new developments, this proposal was put forward at a hastily arranged meeting on Wednesday, any proposals should be subject to a wide consultation process.
“We are in a very difficult situation in NHS Grampian, I think the board has failed over the last two years to address the huge problems with endoscopy and staffing in radiology, titology and oncology.
“The other concern we have is the reputational damage to health staff due to the coverage in the media, such as the recent story about the consultant being flown over from India.
“It’s important to recognise that responsibility without accountability is meaningless.”