Revealed, true toll of cancelled ops as NHS ‘closed down’

ONLY a fraction of the usual number of operations have been carried out as the NHS ground to a halt amid the Covid-19 outbreak.

NHS Scotland figures published yesterday show the full extent of the shutdown of the health service.

Only 2,948 hospital operations took place in April, compared with 24,894 in the same month a year earlier.

On March 17, the NHS was placed under emergency measures. Boards were asked to suspend all non-urgent treatment to clear wards and operating lists of patients in expectation of an influx of Covid-19 cases.

Then, on March 23, lockdown began, meaning many operations that had been planned for April were cancelled long before they were due to take place.

There are 1,168 people in Scot- land’s hospitals with confirmed or suspected Covid-19. Of these, 34 are in intensive care. The death toll is 2,375.

Last night, the Scottish Government said patients would be seen ‘as quickly’ as the NHS can manage. It is gearing up to resume the most urgent outpatient and inpatient appointments, such as patients who are at risk of deteriorating, at a controlled pace.

Cancer and other urgent services will resume, especially referrals and postponed treatments.

Those services resuming first include eyesight services, paediatrics and respiratory services and mental health support. Blood monitoring will also resume.

Theresa Fyffe, of the Royal College of Nursing in Scotland, said: ‘Before this crisis, nursing staffing levels in hospitals, community services and care homes were already significantly stretched.

‘In recent months, nurses and health care support workers have stepped up and intensified their work because that is what has been needed.

‘Recovery will be a complex and lengthy process and will need to take account of the demands that have been placed on health and care staff in recent months. There will be challenges in finding new ways of working to ensure infection prevention and control and maintain social distancing.’

A recent survey by the British

Medical Association revealed more than half of doctors thought the care available to those without Covid symptoms was worsening because of the prioritising of patients with symptoms or confirmed cases. BMA Scotland chairman Lewis Morrison said: ‘It is vital we get as much of our NHS back up and running as quickly as can safely be done for people who depend on it and need our care.

‘We completely understand the desire to resume more normal NHS services as lockdown eases. But this has to be carefully balanced with the huge scale and complexity of the challenge we face.

‘Many doctors are concerned about how they will cope with surges in demand as the NHS begins to open up.’

A Scottish Government spokesman said: ‘We asked health boards to postpone non life-threatening elective procedures which will allow vital NHS staff to be redeployed to support the response to the Covid-19 pandemic.

‘As the crisis eases and the health service gradually reopens, we will do all we can, as quickly as we can, 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.’

The NHS is expected to resume some limited services in the current first phase out of lockdown, with more to restart in phase two, which is at least three weeks away.

‘A complex and lengthy process’