How just 1 in 7 NHS operations is going ahead due to Covid
FEWER than 4,000 routine NHS operations were carried out in the whole of one month this year, around one seventh of the usual number.
With hospitals pausing normal workloads, only 3,809 planned procedures took place in May, compared with more than 27,645 in February – before Covid-19 hit Scotland.
Hospitals put the brakes on routine operations in the middle of March to make way for a predicted influx of Covid-19 cases. Only the most urgent other cases have been seen, including patients needing cancer surgery.
A total of 4,101 Scots infected with Covid-19 have needed hospital care and at its peak 221 patients were in intensive care. But due to lockdown dramatically slowing the spread of the virus, the number of Covid-19 patients has drastically reduced.
Yesterday there were 376 Covid-19 patients in hospital in Scotland, of whom three were in intensive care, with a further four suspected cases in intensive care.
The latest NHS operations figures prompted opposition parties to call on the Scottish Government to get the health service back up and running as a matter of urgency.
There are major concerns about spiralling waiting lists, with no real certainty how long patients will now have to wait for their procedures.
Requirements for social distancing and extra personal protective equipment could also affect theatre lists.
The most urgent procedures have resumed but routine operations will not restart until phase three of the easing of lockdown at the earliest.
This month, Scots orthopaedic specialist Jon Dearing said he and colleagues were ‘intensely frustrated’ at being left ‘twiddling their thumbs’ while wards and theatres lie empty.
Almost one-third of patients waited longer than three months for routine hospital treatment before Scotland went into lockdown, and Mr Dearing predicts the backlog could lead to some facing waiting lists of more than three years.
Scottish Conservative health spokesman Miles Briggs said: ‘Now that the virus is under control it is crucial that SNP ministers start planning how our NHS is going to recover from this crisis.
‘Many health boards were already struggling to meet waiting time standards before Covid19
hit and the lack of support they have received from ministers does not bode well.
‘Ministers must put an urgent recovery plan in place for the NHS and give it the necessary support to reduce this backlog of operations.’
Some planned healthcare procedures delayed due to the coronavirus pandemic will now be carried out at the £38million NHS Louisa Jordan, the temporary hospital set up at the Scottish Events Campus in Glasgow that was not ultimately used to treat Covid-19 patients.
The hospital will initially receive some orthopaedic outpatient consultations. If that is successful, it could be used to provide a wide range of planned healthcare procedures that have been delayed. It will also be used for staff training, teaching and examinations due to its clinical facilities and the space available to maintain physical distancing.
More than 1,000 bed bays were built at the hospital, with initial capacity to treat 300 patients.
A Scottish Government spokesman said: ‘We asked health boards to postpone nonlife-threatening elective procedures which will allow vital NHS staff to be redeployed to support the response to the Covid-19 pandemic.
‘As the pandemic eases and the health service continues to gradually reopen, we will do all we can to support health boards to catch up on any outpatient and inpatient treatment that has been postponed, while also being able to respond to ongoing Covid-19 requirements as necessary.’
‘Reduce backlog of operations’ ‘Intensely frustrated’