Doctor, Health officials of the NHS Grampian said that people were offered places in hotels it was deemed clinically appropriate. The NHS health board said so defending their decision to house hospital patients in Aberdeen hotel accommodation instead of wards.

A spokeswoman for NHS Grampian said a doctor always took the decision as to whether it would be suitable for a patient to stay outwith the city's Royal Infirmary. She said that as the hospital is busy and there are some upgrading work going on at the moment so there is pressure on beds and she stated that this practice has been used for a while.

She said that it mainly includes cases of patients coming in advance to the city for tests or before going home following treatment, and a low number of people were affected. She defended the hospitals decision by stating that they had people staying outwith the hospital only where it is clinically appropriate to do so.