80% OF COVID BEDS FULL
EIGHTY per cent of Scotland’s allocated Covid beds are full.
And in some health board areas there is already an overcapacity – forcing hospitals to move non-coronavirus patients to private hospitals, the national Golden Jubilee or the NHS Louisa Jordan for non critical care.
Hospitals are under increasing pressure from the rise in Covid patients as the Record highlighted last week.
Figures provided for Monday showed there were a total of 1959 patients in Scots hospitals with Covid out of a “winter surge capacity” for Covid cases of 2400 beds.
Yesterday that figure rose by another 30 to 1989.
But a Scottish Government spokesman said the NHS Louisa Jordan – which was originally created in case hospitals were unable to cope – would not be considered for Covid use until hospitals reached the 2400 mark.
Instead health boards will be “flexible” moving patients to other hospitals to create more Covid space.
The Scottish Government spokesman said: “Two or three health boards are running over the notional Covid bed capacity. They are running pretty hot.”
He said NHS Ayrshire & Arran, for example, have “already shifted some of their elective work into the Golden Jubilee national facility in order to make space for more Covid patients”.
The spokesman added that admissions were beginning to “plateau” in some health boards which he said “shows signs of recovery”.
And he said the improvements in treatment for the virus could be the reason ICU beds were not under as much pressure as in the first wave.
On Monday, just 146 beds of the 360 capacity were in use – 62 fewer than at the first peak.
Addressing Parliament yesterday, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said: “The number of Covid patients in intensive care remains below the peak of the first wave, however, it has increased by more than 90 per cent since the turn of the year.”