A Scottish hospital is to resume issuing hearing aids after BBC Scotland revealed a financial crisis had led to the service being temporarily discontinued.

An estimated £3m overspend by Grampian University Hospitals Trust led to Aberdeen Royal Infirmary suspending the service in September 1999, eight months before the end of the financial year, until April.

After Scottish Executive intervention, Grampian Health Board is to dip into emergency funds, providing £30,000 to resolve the crisis which has affected around 980 patients and angered the local patient watchdog group.

Conflicting reports

As criticism mounted, conflicting reports of how the situation arose came from the health board and the hospital trust.

The health board says it only discovered the service had been suspended within the last few days.

The hospital trust insists its head of audiology told the board as far back as September last year.

Grampian Local Health Council, the patients' watchdog group which is supposed to be consulted about major changes to levels of care, says it was never told the service had been suspended.

Spokesperson for Grampian Local Health Council, Dr Kim Walker, said she was angered by the system failure.

She said: "I think it's scandalous. The fact that these are patients who obviously have severe hearing difficulties, who need to get on with their lives and are being deprived of something as basic as a hearing aid, is obviously very bad."

It is understood that both the Grampian University Hospitals Trust and its predecessor the Aberdeen Royal Hospitals Trust informally requested additional funding from the Health Board around the time the problem became apparent, but the request was turned down.

While the restoration of the service is good news for patients, the backlog which has built up since September means many will still face a long wait for their hearing aid.