Nicola Sturgeon has addressed the current pressures facing the NHS in a special press conference today.
The First Minister spoke about elective surgeries being paused in three areas of Scotland.
NHS Ayrshire & Arran, NHS Borders and NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde have all paused elective surgeries in a bid to reduce pressure on services.
Ms Sturgeon said that pressure on the NHS in general "remains severe".
NHS bosses in Ayrshire and Arran announced last Monday that elective surgeries would be off the table for three weeks.
It means that any patients who required to stay in hospital to recover after going under the knife will face waiting till at least February to have their operation carried out.
However, Ms Sturgeon revealed today that the Scottish Government is working with other health boards and the Golden Jubilee to make additional capacity to reduce the backlog of elective procedures.
The First Minister said: "I can confirm that the government is currently working with the Golden Jubilee and other health boards to make additional capacity available for elective operations over the weeks to come to minimise the knock on pressure on waiting times.
"That will include weekday and weekend capacity and support specialities such as ophthalmology, orthopedics and general surgery."
Ms Sturgeon touched on the matter again following a question from a journalist.
The First Minister maintained that she thought it was the right approach to empower local health boards to make the decisions on the issues facing each area's services.
Ms Sturgeon said: "I do think it's the right approach. As you all know from listening to me over many months standing here at this podium, the Scottish Government doesn't hesitate to step in and take really tough decisions around healthcare or the delivery of healthcare through the NHS or wider public health interventions if we think that's necessary.
"But right now it is important to empower local health boards because while they're all dealing with intense pressure that will be manifesting itself in different ways in different parts of the country at times and no two health boards are exactly the same in terms of the make-up of the areas that they cover. "
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