Declaring critical incident at ARI was "right thing to do", NHS Grampian boss says
Chief executive Adam Coldwells said it was "absolutely the right thing to do to regain a sense of flow within the hospital needed at that time."
The chief executive at NHS Grampian said declaring a critical incident at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary (ARI) was the right thing to do.
A small number of patients were diverted away from the Grampian area however patients requiring life-saving treatment were still treated at ARI.
It was due to extreme pressure at its largest hospital.
The incident was stood down after less than 48 hours.
At a board meeting on Thursday 12 December, Chief Executive Adam Coldwells said it was "absolutely the right thing to do to regain a sense of flow within the hospital needed at that time."
He added a small number of elective proceadures which were postponed have all now been rescheduled and apologised to anyone directly affected.
He also extended his thanks to the Scottish Ambulance Service and Health and Social Care Partnership for their efforts.
Mr Coldwells explained during the meeting that "trigger" factors were at the cause of the critical incident including delayed discharge, the number of admissions and their urgency.
Speaking after the meeting, he said a number of steps are being taken to reduce the risk of an event such as this happening in the future: "We've managed to secure a small bit of additional capacity in the community to try and increase the rate that people can be discharged from hospital.
"We've got a really dynamic situation so the four people in charge of our health and social care partnerships in our acute hospital are meeting on a regular basis just to keep an eye on those key figures and those key bits to see when it's looking at a high risk, so they can then take some mitigations in any part of the things that they can do differently to try and reduce that pressure."
NHS Grampian board chair, Alison Evison, praised staff during the meeting for their "herculean efforts" during a "challenging and complex situation".
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