Nicola Sturgeon today urged Scots to wear masks on public transport and if they have a cold as she blamed ‘extraordinary’ Covid and flu pressures for NHS chaos.
Facing questions at a pandemic-style press briefing, the SNP leader admitted hospitals were nearly full – saying the number of patients with coronavirus had doubled in the past four weeks.
Ms Sturgeon urged Scots to take ‘basic’ precautions, such as washing hands more frequently.
She said people should stay at home where possible if they have a cough or cold, and wear a mask if they do need to leave the house. The First Minister also stressed advice for all over-12s to wear face coverings on trains and buses.
Under an intense grilling, Ms Sturgeon said: ‘We are facing exceptional problems that are not unique to Scotland…
‘In a relative sense NHS Scotland is dealing with these pressures in a better way.’
SNP health spokesman Humza Yousaf admitted yesterday that the health service north of the border is in turmoil, with warnings that record A&E waits and delayed discharge numbers are costing patients their lives.
A poll has suggested Scots want the SNP to focus on the NHS chaos and cost-of-living issues rather than efforts to force an independence referendum.
Meanwhile, Ms Sturgeon is facing a huge row over her plans to loosen gender identity rules in Scotland, reducing age limits and removing the need for a medical diagnosis.
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Trans Scots could need separate certificates for rest of the UK
Transgender people in Scotland may need to apply for a UK gender recognition certificate if they wish to be recognised in England and Wales.
A controversial new law passed by the Scottish Parliament states that people will no longer need a medical diagnosis of gender dysphoria in order to legally change their gender and be given a Gender Recognition Certificate (GRC).
It will also lower the minimum age for applicants from 18 to 16 and drop the time required for an applicant to live in their acquired gender from two years to three months, although with a subsequent, three-month reflection period.
But UK government sources told The Times that if a medical diagnosis of gender dysphoria is not required then Scotland would no longer be recognised by the rest of the UK as having a rigorous process for changing gender.
A consequence of this would mean that people issued with a Scottish GRC would also have to apply for a UK certificate for it to be recognised south of the border.
Ms Sturgeon tried to get back on the front foot with the press conference this morning, after being criticised for staying silent over pressure on services. Rising Covid cases and winter flu have been adding to the problems across the UK.
She admitted that ‘the NHS was under pressure before Covid struck us’.
‘Changing demographics and ever increasing expectations of what healthcare advances can deliver, which of course in themselves are positive developments, were posing challenges for the NHS and necessitating reforms to care pathways.
‘That said, Covid, and I think we know and understand it, represented a significant shock to the system and its ongoing impact together with associated backlogs, coupled with extraordinary levels of other illnesses this winter, is creating pressure that is truly unprecedented.’
She went on: ‘In addition to Covid, the country has been experiencing extraordinary levels of winter flu, more than 1,000 patients were admitted to hospital with flu during each of the last two weeks, and finally there has also been a rising number of cases of Strep A and other respiratory viruses resulting in a significant demand for services.
‘So, the impact of this combination of Covid, flu and Strep A is clear in the statistics measuring demand for health services.’
Ms Sturgeon said that ‘hospitals right now are currently almost completely full’.
She said: ‘Last Wednesday hospital bed occupancy across Scotland exceeded 95 per cent. For context at the same stage in 2020, before the pandemic struck, occupancy was around 87 per cent.’
The First Minister said that reflected the sheer scale of demand, the fact that those needing further care tend to be sicker with more complex needs, and delays in the discharge of people who no longer need to be in hospital.
A Survation poll for the Scotland in Union group found 62 per cent thought the Scottish government should be prioritising the cost-of-living crisis.
That compared to only 8 per cent who chose an independence referendum.
Some 26 per cent thought the SNP should continue spending public money on planning for another national vote to leave the union, after the UK Supreme Court ruled it cannot proceed without permission from Westminster.
Mr Yousaf’s BBC comments about the NHS came after Dr Lailah Peel, the deputy chairman of the British Medical Association (BMA) in Scotland told the Mail that the waiting times crisis is leading to more than 50 needless deaths a week.
Figures show that 1,925 patients spent 12 hours or more in Accident and Emergency in the week leading up to Christmas.
Only 56.9 per cent were seen within the SNP’s four-hour target time, marginally up from the record low of 55.1 per cent the previous week.
Speaking on BBC Scotland’s The Sunday Show yesterday, Dr Peel said lives were ‘absolutely’ being lost.
She described the situation as ‘absolutely brutal’ adding that every frontline health worker knows of patients who had ‘suffered’ because of the turmoil.
But a defiant Mr Yousaf yesterday denied that the Government had been ill-prepared for winter.
Asked if he had done ‘enough planning’, Mr Yousaf told the BBC: ‘Yes. We planned for this winter as soon as the last winter was over and we got right into meetings with our local health boards, with our social care colleagues and everybody else.
‘There are some things that we just would not have been able to foresee – the high levels of inflation caused by the reckless mini budget, for example, and the impact that has had on social care costs.’
The SNP leader will face questions alongside Scotland’s national clinical director Jason Leitch and embattled health spokesman Humza Yousaf (pictured)
Mr Yousaf played down a call by Scottish Labour for the Army to be drafted in to help with the crisis. He also cited the effect of high numbers of flu and virus infections, saying: ‘This is an unprecedented crisis. I don’t use that word lightly but it is something that all governments are facing.’
Scottish Conservative health spokesman Dr Sandesh Gulhane said : ‘Humza Yousaf is still in denial about how he completely failed to support Scotland’s NHS ahead of the worst winter in living memory that overwhelmed staff and suffering patients are continuing to endure.
‘Under Humza Yousaf, A&E waiting times have spiralled out of control, patients are waiting longer and longer for vital treatments and fit and healthy patients cannot leave hospital as a result of the SNP’s failure to eradicate delayed discharge, which they promised to do eight years ago.
‘Humza Yousaf’s dire forward planning has exposed how out of his depth he is as Health Secretary. He should be sacked by Nicola Sturgeon immediately.’