BATTLE STATIONS
»»NHS on emergency footing facing biggest challenge in 71-year history »»Routine ops axed in bid to double intensive care beds as second Scot dies »»Health chief claims 55,000 infected and 20,000 deaths a ‘good outcome’
SCOTLAND’S NHS has cancelled non-urgent operations as the Government battles to cope with a “substantial and sustained increase” in coronavirus cases.
The news came as a second Scottish patient died from the virus and the numbers infected rose to 195. The person who died was in the Greater Glasgow and Clyde area and had underlying health problems.
Meanwhile, the Scottish Government is considering closing all schools “in the coming days”.
Discussions are believed to be taking place about implementing a blanket ban on schools opening across the country.
Speaking on BBC Reporting Scotland last night, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said it’s “highly possible” mass closures could come into place soon.
She said: “I think it is highly possible that we will see a more blanket approach to school closures in the coming days.”
Health Secretary Jeane Freeman delivered the updated infection figures but admitted: “We know the true figure will be substantially higher”.
She called the outbreak an “unprecedented challenge” as she told MSPs at Holyrood battling it “will involve the biggest peacetime mission our nation has undertaken in our lifetimes.”
The UK Government’s chief scientific advisor Sir Patrick Vallance placed the numbers actually infected around the UK at about 55,000 and said the aim was for fewer than 20,000 people to die.
During a hearing of the health select committee, Vallance said: “If we can get numbers down to 20,000 and below, that’s a good outcome in terms of where we would hope to get to with this outbreak. But that’s still an enormous number of deaths and an enormous pressure on the health service and, having spent 20 years as an NHS consultant as well as an academic, I know what that looks and feels like.”
With the likelihood of the infection spreading and more dying, Freeman outlined plans to put the NHS on a new emergency footing.
She said: “We are asking society to take some truly unprecedented steps to suppress the spread of this infection and minimise its impact.
Our goal is simple – to protect and save lives – and we need everyone’s help to achieve this.
“I know we have asked a lot of the people of Scotland but in the weeks and months to come we may have to ask for far more.
“To respond to Covid-19 requires a swift and radical change in the way our NHS does its work. It is nothing short of the most rapid reconfiguration of our health service in its 71-year history.”
She said under the NHS Scotland Act of 1978 she was “formally placing our national health service on an emergency footing for the next three months.”
New measures introduced on Monday say anyone living with someone exhibiting possible Covid-19 symptoms should selfisolate for 14 days. However, to ensure vital health workers do not unnecessarily self-isolate, all NHS staff will be tested for the virus.
Freeman said her first goal was to double capacity in intensive care and boards were working towards this by retraining staff and repurposing facilities.
Contingency plans for increasing oxygen and respirators were under way. She also said plans were afoot to increase bed capacity by 3000 – bringing the amount of available beds to 16,000 – and to reduce delayed discharges by 400 within the month.
But in order to achieve the aims, any “non-urgent elective procedures” like hip and knee replacements will be suspended.
However, she said: “I want to be very clear though, vital cancer treatments, emergency, maternity and urgent care will continue.”
The private sector has been approached to ensure their beds may be utilised to ensure maximum bed capacity to help the NHS. Work is ongoing with regulators to enable former NHS workers to return to medicine and senior students to enter the workplace.
Freeman added: “It’s a watershed moment in our nation, our world and most certainly in our NHS.”
Sturgeon said the new measures introduced heralded a “change to life as we know it” but that they were essential to give the best chance of reducing the numbers of people who would die.