The cost of overtime needed to cut waiting times in north-east hospitals and health centres has dropped by nearly half in the last year.
According to the latest figures, NHS Grampian spent £689,000 on the practice between April and December 2017.
It is predicted that the health board’s total spend for the financial year will be close to £900,000 – marking a 45% reduction on the £1.63million paid out in 2016-17.
Contractually NHS Grampian does not pay overtime, but it does release additional funds through the Waiting List Initiatives system, which allows staff to sign up for extra shifts in departments where patients are facing delays to treatment.
Over the first nine months of the 2017-18 year, 97 consultants received payments through the scheme, boosting their pay packets by an average of £7,100 each.
By comparison, 145 members of staff each took home an average of £11,240 from the initiative in the previous year.
Alongside a reduction in the number of consultants involved, the total hours they have been needed for has also fallen.
NHS Grampian is forecast to have allocated approximately 6,000 hours of Waiting List Initiatives work by the end of 2017-18, down from 10,746.
The health board made this year’s payments across 17 departments where waiting lists were longest, ranging from cardiology and gastroenterology through to cardiac and plastic surgeries.
A spokeswoman said: “As these figures highlight, the level of funding is targeted at a number of specialities where we face particular challenges.
“The requirement to fund additional activity is planned according to the needs of these clinical specialities from year to year; hence the variation in the expenditure.”
North East Conservative MSP, Tom Mason, welcomed the news but called for the health board to be given more money.
He said: “Any reduction in the amount of money being spent on overtime costs for consultants is to be welcomed.
“However, far too many patients are still facing lengthy waits for operations.
“NHS Grampian still has serious issues around the recruitment and retention of key staff, not to mention a significant shortfall in funding from central government.
“There is a direct link between the staffing and funding problems and performance at the health board.”
The Scottish Government has said it is working with the health board to deliver more investment, and recently provided the NHS an additional £50million to help tackle long waiting times.