Vulnerable older people in Aberdeen may have been put at risk because of delays in dealing with their cases, a care watchdog says.

The Care Inspectorate raised "significant concerns" about the way adult support and protection referrals were being carried out following a review last year.

Its report, published on Tuesday, said delays in the process might have left "a few older people at significant risk over a protracted period".

There were delays of six months or more in four of the 14 cases inspectors examined, caused by staff shortages, slow NHS assessments and sluggish decision-making by Police Scotland.

Inspectors reported while morale was generally high during their inspection, some staff said they were working at full capacity and warned increasing workloads had left them "firefighting".

The Care Inspectorate has made eight recommendations to improve the situation but concluded that the Aberdeen City Health and Social Care Partnership (ACHSCP), which is responsible for healthcare in the city, was having a positive impact overall.

An ACHSCP spokesman said: "Senior managers immediately commissioned an independent external review of adult support and protection processes as soon as the issue was identified during the inspection process at the end of last year.

"The review looked at a much larger sample of cases than the inspectors had studied. It showed just 3% were unsatisfactorily dealt with, with no one at significant risk - and revealed no underlying systemic problems.

"The inspectors were satisfied by the speed with which the Partnership acted and endorsed the process we undertook.

"They have no plans to revisit the issue. We have continued to improve our adult protection processes since the inspection was completed last February."