‘High pressure’ in Scottish hospitals due to Covid surge say doctors

Doctors from the British Medical Association in Scotland have warned of “a very high level of pressure” on the health service in the country due to a large increase in coronavirus cases.

Concerns have been expressed that elective treatments could be cancelled if pressures on staff are not reduced.

It comes after Raigmore Hospital in Inverness announced it had reached capacity and declared “code black status” – halting all non-urgent elective surgery.

Last week, NHS Tayside also said its services were becoming very busy as Covid-19 patients increased.

Dr Lewis Morrison, BMA Scotland chair, has said that decisions will need to be made quickly regarding staff absences due to the requirement to self-isolate.

He said: “Raigmore is an example of what might well happen in other places in the NHS in Scotland if we don’t take some action to deal with what is a very high level of pressure on healthcare, both in general practice and in hospitals, combined with rising Covid cases leading to a quite large number of staff having to self-isolate as contacts.”

Dr Morrison said any change in self-isolation policies for double-vaccinated healthcare staff would have to be safe for patients and staff themselves.

He said meetings were going ahead within the Scottish Government “with some urgency” on the issue.

Dr Morrison continued: “Within the next few days I think some sort of decision needs to be made to assure the continuity of healthcare services in areas under these kind of pressures.

“It’s as urgent as that I think.”