NHS Highland has been ordered to tackle the problem of dermatitis among staff.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has given the health board until the end of April to reduce levels of the painful skin condition.

Dermatitis has become a problem for hospital staff forced to repeatedly wash their hands in an effort to stem the spread of infections like MRSA.

Some staff at Raigmore Hospital in Inverness were put on restrictive duties last year after contracting the skin problem.

NHS Highland has failed to adequately control the risk of dermatitis among employees, and has not taken sufficient preventative or protective measures, according to the HSE improvement order.

A spokeswoman confirmed: "NHS Highland had an improvement notice served on November 11 to put in place a number of measures to control the risk of dermatitis to staff.

"Since then we have been working with the local Health and Safety Executive and have put in place a number of actions."

"These include improved training for managers and staff, better monitoring and a number of policy and procedural controls.

"Many of these are already implemented and we are on course to meet the requirements in the improvement notice."