We need action, not just words, from NHS Grampian and the Scottish Government’s health secretary, writes Neil Alexander.

Healthcare in Moray has reached breaking point.

Recent figures show that patients attending Dr Gray’s Hospital’s emergency department in Elgin are facing unacceptable waits to be treated.

We need action, not just words, from NHS Grampian and the Scottish Government’s health secretary. Health services in rural areas like Moray are in desperate need of more support.

The latest statistics, obtained by the Moray Liberal Democrats, show that, despite only 34 more attendees at Dr Gray’s A&E department compared to the same point last year, the number of patients facing significantly longer wait times has shot up.

The number of people waiting at A&E for more than four hours has more than doubled since last year, and the number waiting more than eight hours is over seven times higher. The number waiting more than 12 hours is more than 11 times the amount it was last year.

I live in Elgin, and these findings scare me. How much higher do waiting times need to get before real action is taken? How bad does the situation need to be before there’s an intervention?

This can’t go on. Lives are on the line.

Moray is not the only area suffering

There’s already the outrageous need for pregnant mothers to have to travel to Aberdeen or Inverness from Moray, instead of giving birth at Dr Gray’s. Consider the snow storms we had recently. These problems need to be fixed immediately, before the unthinkable happens.

It’s not just Moray either; look at Caithness, where women have to travel over 100 miles to Inverness to give birth. Health Secretary Humza Yousaf declined an invite from their MP to travel that journey with him.

If services from both Caithness and Moray are being directed to Inverness, how much more pressure can Raigmore Hospital take?

Local health services are on life support. We’ve heard time and time again that there’s “no money left in the pot”, but that could not be further from the truth.

Government must do more

The health secretary claims there is no money left to give nurses a fair pay deal. Yet, he could ditch his expensive care service centralisation plans, which have an estimated cost of £1.3 billion.

Centralisation would just result in care services being reprioritised from where they’re needed most, hurting our rural communities.

That money could be used to give rural health services more support now. It could be used to give fair wages and more staff support for nurses. It could be used to support hospital A&E departments, like Dr Gray’s, out of the crisis they are currently facing.

Sadly, I think these suggestions will fall on deaf ears.

Neil Alexander is a Liberal Democrat, a member of the Scottish Executive Committee for the Lib Dems, and a community councillor for Elgin