CODE BLACK
Health board calls in the Army and moves to highest alert level
NHS bosses yesterday called in the military, cancelled cancer treatment and moved to the highest risk level as hospitals reached ‘critical occupancy’.
NHS Lanarkshire said it had moved its risk level to ‘black’ amid ‘relentless pressures’ on staffing levels and beds across three of its hospitals.
Cancer operations and other planned elective surgeries have been cancelled, while patients have been told to expect long waiting times at ‘overwhelmed’ A&E departments.
Covid-19 has in part been blamed for causing the ‘increased clinical demands’ and staff absences due to illness.
The alert is the most serious on NHS Lanarkshire’s scale, which moves from green to yellow, amber, red and black.
Deputy chief executive Laura Ace said: ‘The sustained pressure continues across our three acute hospitals and is showing no signs of easing. We are facing relentless pressures, bed shortages and staff shortages due to sickness, stress and self-isolation and university hospitals Hairmyres, Monklands and Wishaw are all at maximum capacity.
‘The military are providing additional support within our hospitals.
‘The current pressures mean we are having to further stand down elective (planned) procedures including some
‘Inadequate Covid recovery plan’
cancer procedures, which we will reschedule as soon as possible.
‘The situation is unprecedented and marks a different level of risk for NHS Lanarkshire as a whole and moves our current status to the highest level of risk. We issued a message on social media this week warning patients to expect long waits at A&E as they are overwhelmed.
‘This means patients are having to wait much longer to be seen than we would like, well in excess of our target of four hours. A high number of these patients need to be admitted which is causing severe pressures throughout our hospitals.’
She also appealed to families to provide assistance in arranging discharges as quickly as possible to free up hospital beds.
However, NHS Lanarkshire was unable to even provide a definition of the colour-coded risk scale. A bizarre media briefing, which appeared to quibble over semantics as the meltdown unfolded, also read: ‘NHS Lanarkshire does not recognise the term “code black”. However, there are different levels of risk between Green, Yellow, Amber, Red and Black which is the highest risk.
‘As we are at critical occupancy levels and due to the overall pressure on the whole health system in Lanarkshire we have moved to the highest risk level which is Black.’
Scottish Conservative health spokesman Dr Sandesh Gulhane said: ‘It’s unforgivable that NHS Lanarkshire is now reporting a higher level of risk than during the very peak of the pandemic. Last month, I warned Humza Yousaf that the interconnected crises in our NHS would bring Scottish health boards to breaking point if nothing was done – and that is what we’re seeing.
‘Not only will this impact Lanarkshire residents, but it is likely to have a knock-on effect across the entire health service.
‘My dedicated colleagues in the NHS are working tirelessly, but their efforts are being undermined by the SNP Government’s inadequate Covid recovery plan.
‘The SNP dithered before belatedly calling in UK Armed Forces to help tackle the crisis.’ Scottish Labour deputy leader and health spokesman Jackie Baillie said: ‘It is a national scandal that cancer operations are being cancelled when we are already playing catch-up and it is frankly terrifywarnings ing that we have reached this point before winter.
‘This astonishing move puts it beyond doubt that we are in the midst of a full-blown NHS crisis. It is a damning indictment of the SNP’s recovery plan that risk levels in Lanarkshire are higher than when Covid was at its peak.’
The alert comes just days after the NHS is in the midst of a nursing staffing ‘time bomb’. The Royal College of Nursing in Scotland and the Unison union warned of red flags that indicate a crisis is looming after the latest NHS figures showed there were 4,845 nurse vacancies in June, with more than a fifth unfilled for at least three months.
A Scottish Government spokesman said: ‘As NHS Lanarkshire has made clear, this is an unprecedented situation and it has introduced measures to seek to reduce pressures. The Scottish Government is taking direct action to support NHS Lanarkshire; this includes having secured the provision of military assistance. The NHS is facing its most difficult challenge in its 73-year history.’
‘Risk levels higher than at virus peak’