Banff and Buchan MP David Duguid has questioned why constituents are being forced to travel more than 20 miles each way to attend mass Covid-19 vaccination centres.
The Scottish Conservative MP had previously called for Turriff to be included in the list of local facilities for carrying out vaccinations.
The town’s sports centre was used for the over-80s, but now residents in the town are being asked to travel to Macduff, while people living south of Turriff in the Fyvie area must now travel to the TECA complex in Aberdeen – 22 miles away or a 44-mile round trip.
At the other side of the constituency, the site in Ellon will not be used for phase two of the process, leaving residents living north of the town again having to travel into Aberdeen or up to Peterhead.
Aberdeenshire Health and Social Care Partnership said at the outset of the vaccination drive that, as far as possible, clinics would be within a ten-mile drive.
Scottish Conservative MP for Banff and Buchan David Duguid said:
“I am very disappointed with the latest announcement about the second stage of the vaccination process.
“I had asked for a centre to be established in Turriff to serve not only the town’s population of 5,700 people, but about 2,000 more in surrounding towns and villages.
“Now we are told that there is not a suitable replacement in Turriff, but the Ellon vaccination centre is also not going to be used in the next phase.
“One of my constituents in Fyvie who has been shielding for nearly a year now has been told to travel 22 miles into Aberdeen to a mass vaccination centre.
“That is not acceptable. More consideration needs to be made for those living in more rural areas like Turriff that always seem to be missed out.
“I am contacting NHS Grampian and the Aberdeenshire Health and Social Care Partnership to ask why people are being put in this position and what is being done to provide alternative arrangements to make sure they don’t miss out.”