Moray MP Douglas Ross is “deeply concerned” at the lack of any progress in securing urgently needed new healthcare facilities in Keith.
He received a letter from now former SNP Government health secretary Michael Matheson to confirm that NHS Grampian has not submitted anything for approval for a new Keith health centre.
Douglas said: “I am deeply concerned that the project to provide desperately needed new health care facilities for the people of Keith and the surrounding areas seems to have ground to a complete halt.
“In one of his final acts in post, disgraced former SNP health secretary Michael Matheson, seemed content to say there has been no submission from NHS Grampian.
"There is absolutely no urgency whatsoever from the SNP Government, despite their warm words in the past.
“For more than ten years campaigners have been calling for a new health centre and a replacement for the current hospital in Keith, and Health and Social Care Moray was given the go-ahead from NHS Grampian back in February 2019 to develop an Initial Agreement (IA), which is the first stage in getting the project submitted to the Scottish Government for approval and funding.”
A letter sent from NHS Grampian to Douglas at the start of the year pointed out that there was a pause in work due to Covid-19, but that “the project resumed in March 2022 and the IA has been all but concluded as far as it can be”.
Douglas added: “I just cannot understand how this is all taking so long, despite NHS Grampian assuring me that ‘new health and care facility for Keith remains a priority for Health and Social Care Moray and NHS Grampian’.”
“That is in stark contrast to what the SNP Scottish Government are saying.
“We really need to see action from the new SNP Health Secretary. I have lost count of the number of senior SNP politicians who have promised to deliver these much-needed facilities for Keith, but it seems we are no further forward than we were a decade ago. The SNP can’t blame Westminster for this. Health is fully devolved and under their control.
"They must finally deliver for the people of Keith and the surrounding areas. We don’t need more excuses, we finally need action.”