Patients who are unjabbed ‘full of regret’

People who miss or refuse their vaccinations against Covid-19 and later end up ill in hospital are “full of regret”, according to a top Fife doctor.

Dr Chris McKenna, NHS Fife medical director, said he has treated a number of “very, very ill” unvaccinated patients for Covid who rue not getting jabbed after winding up in a bed at Victoria Hospital in Kirkcaldy.

“If I have any message it would be to get vaccinated,” he told a meeting of Fife’s health and social care partnership (HSCP) board.

“The people coming into hospital who are unwell are unvaccinated.

“If you haven’t had your vaccination please go get it.

“I have personally looked after a number of very, very ill unvaccinated who were full of regret because it’s too late to avoid the impact at that point.”

Vaccination rates in Fife are roughly in line with the national picture: 90.6% and 80.4% of Fifers over 18 have been single and double-jabbed respectively. However, vaccination rates are lower among those aged 60-74, who are at greater risk of complications if they contract the virus.

Covid rates are continuing to rise in the days and weeks after restrictions were all but lifted across Scotland on August 9. The most recent data from Saturday puts the seven-day positivity rate in Fife at 9.86% – the highest level in more than a month.

Dr McKenna has warned that rising Covid rates, combined with hospital visits returning to and even exceeding pre-pandemic levels, will put increased demand on the Kingdom’s health services.

People are also attending A&E with serious health problems that they may have neglected to act on when Covid-19 was at its peak.

He added: “The demand increase is uniform and the impact is significant because these places are busy.

“Perhaps the perception is that some services aren’t as available but all services are open – just very busy.

“We’re working hard to ensure that A&E at Kirkcaldy is able to meet the demand that comes through, but on some days the trend is as much as 50% higher than it would have been pre-pandemic.”

A&E attendances peaked at 1,394 in the week ending June 13 – the highest level of attendance since November 2019. It marked the end of the first full week after Fife entered Level 1 of Covid restrictions.

The demand has caused the rate at which people are seen in A&E to fall substantially. For the first time in more than five years, less than 80% of people were seen within a target of four hours during one week in May, and for three weeks in a row in July. The Scottish Government expects that number to be 95%.

NHS Fife’s nursing director said the health service has embarked on a recruitment drive to make up for what the board’s employee director called a “dire” situation at the end of last month.