NHS FORCED TO OPEN NEW COVID WARD
Health chiefs beg young adults to get jabs quickly
NHS chiefs in an area of Scotland that has become the worst-hit in Europe for Covid-19 have pleaded with younger adults to take up their vaccinations.
Officials in Tayside made the ‘extremely serious’ plea after being forced to open a new ward to cope with virus victims.
Last night, the numbers in the region hospitalised with Covid stood at 63 – the highest figure since February – with five of them in intensive care.
Tayside’s director of public health Dr Emma Fletcher asked young adults to seek out drop-in clinics across the area for their vaccinations.
She said: ‘This is an exceptionally serious message from us at NHS Tayside and it is specifically targeted at 18 to 29-year-olds.
‘I expect everyone has heard that we have the highest rate of Covid infection in Scotland here in Tayside and in particular in Dundee.
‘Some reports have even singled the city out as having not only one of the highest rates in the UK but also in Europe.
‘This is obviously very concerning for all of us as the number of people testing positive every day in Tayside remains in the hundreds.
‘Unfortunately, there are young people right now with Covid in Ninewells Hospital in Dundee – not only in our general wards, but also in our intensive care unit and our high dependency unit.
‘So today we have a simple plea: please go and get your vaccination. Covid-19 has not gone away and is still having a serious impact in Tayside.’
An additional 30-bed ward has been opened up for Covid patients at Ninewells Hospital.
Tayside’s alert comes as NHS Grampian urged the public to try to avoid hospitals during its upcoming holiday weekend.
Aberdeen Royal Infirmary consultant Donna Paterson said: ‘Every year during the summer months we see a rise in admissions to the emergency department, from people drinking excessive amounts of alcohol to those injured in road traffic accidents, to those who take part in other risky activities, like tombstoning. In the hospital, the number of Covid-19 patients has started to climb – from five last Friday to 25 today. We also have a number of staff who are self-isolating.
‘We have less capacity due to guidelines which are in place to keep patients and staff safe as we make efforts to get to patients waiting for procedures as quickly as we can. Avoidable admissions impact our ability to do that.’
The same pressures have seen NHS Lanarkshire and NHS Highland cut their routine services in recent days.
Across Scotland, there were 3,216 new Covid-19 cases reported yesterday – up from 2,802 the day before – and six new deaths, up from four.
There are 427 Scots in hospital with the virus, 39 of them in intensive care. Both figures are the highest since mid-March, but around a quarter of what was seen in January.
In all, 3.9million Scots have received at least one vaccination while 2.8million have had both.
Statistics show that 17 under-18s a week were admitted to hospital between June 10 and 30, compared with only five in the period May 6 to 26.
The trend remains upwards for the 5-11 age range.
Scottish Labour accused Health Secretary Humza Yousaf of taking his ‘eye off the ball’ and called for an urgent acceleration of the vaccination programme. The party’s health spokesman Jackie Baillie said: ‘These are incredibly worrying trends which show clearly that the health and well-being of the young people of Scotland is on the line.
‘The SNP has lost control of the pandemic and the Health Secretary’s eye is off the ball.’
She called for the vaccination programme to be speeded up by cutting the time between first and second doses to four weeks.