Up to 40 new nurses are to be hired at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary to relive staffing pressures as health chiefs battle back from a devastating report into the way the flagship hospital is run.
NHS Grampian said it was also working to lure former nurses back into the professional and had teamed up with Robert Gordon University to refresh training of those who had left their nursing career behind.
The developments come as Health Secretary Shona Robison visited Aberdeen Royal Infirmary to gauge progress made following three damning reports into culture and practice at NHS Grampian.
Gaps in staffing numbers were highlighted as a significant concern by Healthcare Improvement Scotland (HIS).
Ms Robison said last night: “There is no doubt that NHS Grampian have been through a particularly tough and challenging time.
“I’m pleased to see that in a relatively short space of time real progress has been achieved in addressing these recommendations and the board’s update shows that they are heading in the right direction.”
Earlier, she met with chief executive Malcolm Wright and chairman of NHS Grampian, Professor Stephen Logan, to discuss developments.
Both men have joined the organisation in light of the report. Ms Robison said she had picked up on a more positive mood from staff during her hospital visit yesterday.
She added: “No one was saying that everything is hunkydory but there was a sense of optimism that things were moving in the right direction.
She said that staff had also become “very very engaged” in the transitional period of NHS Grampian with briefings being very well attended.
MS Robison added: “I think the new leadership works well as a team and both Malcolm and Stephen have been very well received.
“Malcolm’s style is very inclusive and he has come along with a way to plot a course to address some of the issues that have plagued NHS Grampian for too long.”
NHS Grampian said it had also improved the way it handled patient complaints after HIS reported “significant weaknesses” in how they were investigated.
A board spokeswoman said the feedback service as cleared a backlog of 150 complaints since November
Officials were now dealing speeding up the time it took to get back to patients.
The spokeswoman said: “We believe that our staff are amongst the best working in NHS Scotland and as a Board we are committed to doing all that we can to support them.
“We engaged with many people working across the organisation following the publication of these reports and we will continue to engage with them as we take forward our improvement plan.”