Health check

Edinburgh Royal Infirmary has cancelled a number of non-urgent elective patient treatments to “manage capacity” and prioritise care for Covid-19 cases. Patients due to undergo the procedures have been contacted to say they have been postponed. Disgraceful. A 51-year-old friend of mine died a couple of months ago six days after being diagnosed with a brain tumour. I’m sure if that had been picked up earlier she wouldn’t have died .My own GP had a brain tumour and it was caught early treated and is fine to this day. Only the other day they said more older people have died this year from untreated conditions.

Caroline Marvel The Scottish Government have had six months to review staffing requirements and see if they could recruit more staff. I understand that you can’t just take someone off the dole queue and make them an ICU consultant but how about a recruitment campaign with a refresher retraining for those that have left the NHS? A review of tasks could be carried out to see if lesser skilled tasks can be done by other people than are currently doing these jobs. None of this is at all easy but I would like to know what efforts have been made to increase staff numbers over the last six months.

Fiona Harvie

Every single year non-urgent procedures are cancelled due to "winter pressures" but let's blame it on Covid.

Louise Currie

What’s wrong with transferring all the Covid patients to the hospital that was erected in Glasgow for that purpose and let all the other hospitals get on with routine surgery etc.

Linda Meikle

it just doesn’t make sense having it sitting there ready with the equipment etc and not being used.

Danielle Curry Cancelling non-urgent procedure is not the problem. It’s the urgent ones that need to go ahead now to prevent many more deaths.

Liz Graham