A call has been made for NHS Tayside and Perth and Kinross Council to urgently identify key worker housing for healthcare staff.
The request has been made following a staffing crisis that led to the closure of the Pitlochry Community Hospital Inpatient Unit.
The Perth and Kinross Integration Joint Board voted for the action to be taken when it met on February 16.
The community hospital's inpatient unit was temporarily closed on December 31 due to a staffing crisis. The ward remains closed.
At Wednesday's virtual meeting the board was updated on the situation and asked to approve a proposal to find a more sustainable way forward.
The nine-bedded GP ward provides care and rehabilitation to patients from Pitlochry and the surrounding area. It has faced a long-standing issue with recruiting and retaining nurses since 2018 due to its rural setting and the lack of affordable housing in Highland Perthshire. In October 2021 contingency measures were taken. Staff were redeployed, retired staff, bank staff and high end agency staff were all brought in. Accommodation was provided for agency staff.
Head of health Evelyn Devine told the board: "Despite all our efforts - enormous efforts on behalf of the HSCP, NHS Tayside management and clinical staff to keep the unit open - our reliance on agency staff to keep the unit open got too heavy. It was deemed the ward wasn't safe to keep open at that time."
Highland Perthshire Conservative councillor John Duff expressed concern about support staff whose jobs might have been affected by the ward's closure.
Service manager Amanda Taylor said staff had been redeployed with some support staff redeployed to Perth Royal Infirmary. She said they were supported in terms of travel with no detriment to their pay.
The board was asked to support proposals to remodel the service to have a more integrated approach to rehabilitation and intermediate care services across Highland Perthshire and to support the appointment of a fixed term programme manager to support this.
Independent Highland Perthshire councillor Xander McDade called for an additional recommendation to be included.
His recommendation requested NHS Tayside and Perth and Kinross Council work with partners "as a matter of urgency to identify key worker housing for healthcare staff".
It won the support of the three other Perth and Kinross councillors who sit on the board - councillors John Duff (Con), Callum Purves (Con) and Eric Drysdale (SNP) - and was voted through by four votes to three.
