A healthcare watchdog has found "major deficiencies" in the handling of the death of a patient during surgery, following a damning report into failures by senior leadership at NHS Grampian.

Healthcare Improvement Scotland (HIS) revealed failures to learn from mistakes had caused repeated and avoidable harm to patients.

It also said it had lost confidence in NHS Grampian's management to deliver reliable and consistent information after it was ordered to halt all paediatric surgery at Dr Gray's hospital in Elgin but continued to operate on some children until early August.

Inspectors had raised concerns in a separate report about the safety of critical care and care for critically ill children.

NHS Grampian and the Scottish government have been approached for comment.

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