Health campaigners have warned NHS Grampian that any delays to improvements in maternity and children’s services due to costs will result in fresh protests.
Hundreds of people marched through the centre of Elgin last July after Dr Gray’s Hospital was downgraded due to recruitment challenges.
Now the health board has revealed that implementing measures to fully restore services will cost £2million – with a further £1.7million required for the emergency department and anaesthetics in the Elgin unit to support them.
At a board meeting today, members will be asked to back the plans to restore children’s services.
However, officers are recommending a further update in August on the risks surrounding the maternity service before further progress is made amid warnings that costs will need to be reviewed.
Campaign group Keep Mum has stressed that anything other than “full steam ahead” for restoring the hospital to full health at today’s talks will be a disappointment.
A spokeswoman said: “Next month it will be a year since the maternity service was downgraded.
“Any delay by NHS Grampian to go back on the plan on grounds of finance or anything else will be met with outrage and protest in Moray.
“We expect NHS Grampian to come out of their board meeting and tell the people of Moray that it’s full steam ahead for the restoration of the services we are currently deprived of.”
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Health bosses have estimated that staff should be recruited to bring back services in April next year but have warned there are no guarantees that posts will be filled.
Long-term plans for Dr Gray’s, which have been approved by the Scottish Government, include the return of short stays of up to 24 hours for children while the number of consultants in the maternity unit will be expanded from four to six.
Meanwhile, a new tier of staff working across multiple departments is expected to reduce the seasonal reliance on trainee doctors, which sparked the current downgrade.
Fresh recruitment efforts have been launched locally by the NHS to target the spouses of military personnel in the region ahead of an expected surge of posts arriving at RAF Lossiemouth.
In a report, Pam Gowans, NHS Grampian’s strategic lead for Dr Gray’s, has warned that a failure to recruit could make the current staffing situation even worse.
She said: “Workforce supply and recruitment difficulties have been a long standing issue at Dr Gray’s Hospital.
“Supply issues remain difficult and the success of the current model depends on attracting new staff to choose to come to work in a new model which is yet to start.
“Furthermore a failure to recruit may lead to more loss of staff in the face of workload pressure on a small workforce.”
