FIRST Minister Nicola Sturgeon has chaired a second key meeting to discuss the ongoing pressures on health and social care services.
On Monday, the FM held a press conference in Edinburgh where she confirmed that Scotland’s hospitals were almost “completely full” and that the NHS was in the midst of its “worst winter ever”.
A combination of a rise in respiratory diseases including Covid-19, winter flu and cases of Strep A is causing more Scots to seek medical assistance, and a large number of patients whose discharge from hospital has been delayed, pushing bed occupancy over 95%. At the same time of year pre-pandemic, in 2020, hospital bed occupancy was around 87%.
Health Secretary Humza Yousaf announced £8 million in funding to allow NHS boards to “buy out” 300 beds in care homes at an advanced rate, allowing patients somewhere to have “interim care” while support packages are being put in place. NHS 24 will also be given funding to recruit 200 additional staff to help redirect patients away from hospitals and ease the burden on emergency departments.
However, unions have said that their warnings around recruitment and a lack of staff prior to the pandemic were not heeded and led to the exacerbation of the crisis.
The FM chaired the first meeting of the Scottish Government’s resilience committee (SGoRR) on Friday January 6 and held a second one a week later.
The group discussed the latest number of respiratory infections, pressures on the system and progress on the work to reduce the rate of delayed discharge.
Yousaf, who opposition politicians have been demanding be sacked over the crisis, Deputy FM John Swinney and other Cabinet ministers were in attendance, as well as chief medical officer Gregor Smith and senior representatives from NHS boards, Cosla and other related departments.
The First Minister said: “It is clear that pressure on NHS and social care continues to be very high, and that we need to maintain our emphasis on doing everything we can to help the service through the remainder of the winter.
“The measures set out by the Health Secretary earlier in the week will help to address some of the main issues – easing delayed discharge by purchasing additional care beds for those who are fit to leave hospital, and ensuring adequate resource is in place for NHS24.
“The focus of today’s meeting was to ensure that we keep pushing ahead with every possible step to support our tremendous health and social care staff, and ensure the people of Scotland continue to get the care and treatment they need.
“I would like to thank every single person working in the NHS and care system for the tremendous contribution they are making.”
It comes as the First Minister met with Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on his first visit to Scotland since he was given the top job by Tory MPs.
Sturgeon said Sunak gave “no indication” that there would be any additional funding to avert strike action within the NHS.
She told Good Morning Scotland: “No indication from the Prime Minister of new money, but hopefully we will see strong investment in the NHS.
“The Scottish Government continues to work hard to avert strike action in the NHS.”
Sunak claimed “there is record funding already going into the NHS” and that “more is coming”.
He said: “£1.5 billion over the next couple of years coming to Scotland as a result of the decisions made in the autumn statement. Obviously, that will be up to the Scottish Government to decide how to allocate that money.”
