Virus is public health enemy number one

The Scottish Government’s decision to suspend screening for a range of serious conditions including breast, cervical and bowel cancer is further indication, if needed, of the seriousness of this unfolding coronavirus crisis.

It is a decision no health authority would ever wish to take but one which has been deemed necessary as the NHS focuses its efforts on the fight against Covid-19.

For those awaiting screening, the suspension of their appointments will add to their anxieties. That is understandable but there are no easy decisions right now.

Coronavirus is public health enemy number one and everything else – bar the most exceptional, life threatening cases – while undoubtedly important, is secondary.

That position was underlined by the decision to turn the SEC in Glasgow – one of Scotland’s premier entertainment venues – into a new hospital to deal with the sheer volume of sick that are now expected as a result coronavirus.

It is a move that mirrors the requisitioning and repurposing of the Excel Centre in London by the UK Government as the Nightingale Hospital.

These are extraordinary measures designed to keep the public at large as safe as it can possibly be from an invisble killer to which there is no cure.

The Scottish and UK governments are treading a very difficult line. But with this crisis likely to get very much worse before it gets better, tread it they must.