More than 300 new staff members have joined NHS Grampian over the last year following a major recruitment drive.
Health bosses said the push to attract more medics to the north-east had almost halved the number of consultant vacancies – falling from 79 full time workers in April to 43.7 at the end of September.
The overall number of vacancies at the health board has also reduced steadily, with staff turnover rates also improving during the same period, reducing from 12.14% to 11.03%.
NHS Grampian has struggled to fill gaps in recruitment in recent years, with many blaming the high cost of living in the north-east.
In October, Audit Scotland revealed staff turnover at hospitals in the north and north-east was the highest in Scotland.
A huge recruitment drive was launched to attract former nurses to the region, which has resulted in nearly 20 returning to wards.
Today’s news comes after the health boards recently announced investment in new facilities, including a £150million redevelopment of Foresterhill and the proposed creation of Scotland’s largest single health centre at Inverurie.
NHS Grampian chief executive Malcolm Wright said it was “great news” for patients and staff and that the results were already being felt across the organisation.
“We are determined that healthcare in Grampian will be up there with anything available anywhere in the country by 2020. That is an ambitious target but it is one we are committed to achieving,” he said.
“A crucial part of that is ensuring we have the right staff available in the right places, at the right time.
“With more than 300 extra people now in post, we’ve made considerable strides in the right direction over the last year but we are also under no illusion there is still a lot of work to do.
“The public and our staff can expect further investment and our workforce plan will see additional staff recruitment continue for the foreseeable future.”
Dr Annie Ingram, director of workforce, said the health board had to think outside the box in terms of recruitment.
“Recruitment in the north-east is a challenge for all public organisations not least because of the relatively high cost of housing,” she said.
“That means we’ve had to look outside traditional recruitment methods and we are delighted with the success so far.”