The chair of NHS Grampian has apologised to patients facing long waits for treatment.
Alison Evison sat down with the P&J at the health board’s Foresterhill site to explain some of their “huge” challenges and the steps being taken to address them.
Last week, we published the findings of our wide-ranging survey into the state of local healthcare.
We heard directly from more than 1,200 patients across Grampian and Highland, who shared their personal stories languishing on NHS waiting lists.
One Grampian patient said she waited four and a half years in “horrendous pain” to see gynaecology before giving up and seeking treatment abroad.
NHS Grampian chair: ‘I’m very much sorry’
Asked about how these types of accounts make her feel, Ms Evison said: “I’m very much sorry for people who don’t have the experience that we would like them to have.
“But we are supporting so many patients across Grampian every day and so many people have different experiences of that.
“We have many, many people telling us about the fantastic experiences they’ve had as well and of great care they’ve had from people.
“But we listen to all the experiences, and we very much try to learn from it as well and try to move forward.”
Ms Evison said each service is looking individually at their longest waits, with those in the “greatest need” treated first.
Departments are also assessing whether they can make bids for extra funding.
NHS Grampian repeatedly faces the longest waits for cancer treatment in Scotland, and addressing these is an area it’s working “very strongly” on, she added.
Some of the answers to this are in embracing innovation, with the health board involved in national projects like the digital dermatology programme, to help bring down waits.
“Overall, we are treating more patients across Grampian as cancer is becoming more prevalent”, Ms Evison said.
Meanwhile, packed hospital wards have left ambulances unable to drop off patients queuing up outside Aberdeen Royal Infirmary and Elgin’s Dr Gray’s Hospital.
Last week we shared the story of 55-year-old dad Gary Dow, who lay in the back of an ambulance outside the hospital for eight hours while suffering a heart scare.
‘We don’t have the beds’
Ms Evison apologised to patients who have faced this type of situation.
She said: “It’s really important to emphasise that patients will be seen as they need to be seen, that there’s really effective triage being done, so patients in the greatest need are given the help they need immediately.
“And if ambulances need to be called away to an emergency, there are systems in place where they can do that.
“We have clinical staff going on the ambulances to triage people, actually on the ambulances as well.
“The bottom line is we need to have the space in our hospitals to take people in.
“And you’ll be aware that we have the lowest bed base per head of population in Scotland as well.
“We do not have the beds across the hospital that we would like to have to put people in and that’s something else we need to constantly try and address.”
NHS Grampian faces ‘huge’ financial challenges
NHS Grampian is facing a cash crisis and has the biggest overspend of any health board in the country, at £67.5 million over 2024-25.
Ms Evison admits there are “huge” financial challenges and a big part of that is down to the ageing demographic of the north-east.
But asked if she would like to see changes to the funding formula, she said it’s “bigger than that” and is about “reform in general”.
She added: “In many ways we’re ahead of the curve of other boards as our elderly population is increasing faster than anyone else’s.
“I think where we are, we’ll be where other people will be moving toward as well.”
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