A HEALTH board at the centre of a row over the way they treat whistleblowers has referred more doctors to the General Medical Council in the last 17 months than the largest health authority in the UK.

A third of the investigations conducted by the GMC into doctors from NHS Grampian since the start of last year were sparked by complaints made by the health board itself.

It has filed more complaints than NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, which employs more than twice as many medical staff.

The figures were obtained by The Herald amid on-going controversy about the suspension of Professor Zygmunt Krukowski, the Queen's Surgeon in Scotland, and his colleague Wendy Craig from NHS Grampian.

It has been claimed the suspensions follow efforts by the surgeons to raise concerns about issues at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary and hundreds of people have signed a petition calling for them to be reinstated.

NHS Grampian says they work "closely with the GMC Employer Liaison Advisor to ensure that any referrals are appropriately made, in accordance with GMC threshold guidance."

However, one source said of the number of staff the board has referred to the GMC: "This maybe yet a further indicator of a dysfunctional board who are outsourcing disciplinary matters and may also reflect the pressure on the remaining clinicians in Grampian."

Earlier this year the GMC commissioned Sir Anthony Hooper to review the way they dealt with doctors turned whistleblowers. His report recognised employers may complain about a doctor to the GMC when matters could be dealt with in house and "as a reprisal against a doctor who has raised concerns".

The source said: "I think it is now essential and urgent, particularly in view of the Hooper report, that the GMC reflects on the number of referrals from boards and closely scrutinises the reasons and the nature of these referrals and actively questions the evidence submitted by the board."

Figures show between January 2014 and the end of May this year the GMC received 72 complains about NHS Grampian doctors, including 11 from the health board. A total of 33 of these referrals were investigated by the GMC, including the 11 from NHS Grampian.

Over the same time period the GMC received 180 complaints about doctors in NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde - the largest UK health authority - nine of which came from the health board. A little more than a fifth of the cases investigated were lodged by the health board.

The figures come as campaigners circulated a report outlining their concerns about the health board.

It says: "An increasing number of people believe that NHS Grampian currently operates policies of suspension of senior medical and nursing staff in a way that is contrary to the public interest. Typically very valuable staff members are suspended for many months on the basis of trivial or unsubstantiated allegations. During this time, patients also suffer because of staff shortages."

Dr Donnie Ross, who was medical director of Aberdeen Royal Infirmary between 1996 and 2003, is among those who signed a letter to Health Secrtary Shona Robison demanding a judicial review of the way medical staff have been treated by NHS Grampian. Dr Ross said: "I am actually surprised to find such solid confirmation of what a number of people have been suspecting...

"The GMC is there to look into the behaviour of doctors and there are a range of issues that should be dealt with at a local level by management."

He said reading the Hooper review was like reading a "description of NHS Grampian".

Last year a damning, independent, report was published following an investigation into services at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary. It found serious shortages of doctors and nurses and a forceful style of management.

A spokesman for the GMC said they had a responsibility to investigate all the complaints that were raised with them. However, the GMC has promised to publish an action plan showing how it will take forward the recommendations of the Hooper review.