FMQs: Nicola Sturgeon dismisses Covid hospital bed fears

Fears about a lack of beds and staff in Scotland's hospitals and the impact on coping with coronavirus were today dismissed by the First Minister, as she was pressed to deliver a "no-strings attached" pay rise for NHS staff.

At First Minister’s Questions in Holyrood, Nicola Sturgeon was grilled by all four opposition parties on the recent sharp rise in coronavirus cases, testing of frontline workers, and winter preparedness of the NHS.

Comments by Professor Jackie Taylor, the president of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow, earlier this week that Scotland's NHS was facing a “perfect storm” as a result of staff shortages and a lack of hospital beds were raised by both Scottish Tory Holyrood leader Ruth Davidson and Scottish Labour leader Richard Leonard.

Read More
UK furlough scheme extended until the end of March
Scotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon wears a face mask during her visit to the field hospital the NHS Louisa Jordan. Picture: Andrew Milligan/POOL/AFP via Getty ImagesScotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon wears a face mask during her visit to the field hospital the NHS Louisa Jordan. Picture: Andrew Milligan/POOL/AFP via Getty Images
Scotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon wears a face mask during her visit to the field hospital the NHS Louisa Jordan. Picture: Andrew Milligan/POOL/AFP via Getty Images
Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Ms Davidson said Prof Taylor’s words should sound a warning to the Scottish Government as she asked: “How many beds are we short, how many staff are we short because of illness and isolating and why a week after the NHS winter preparedness plan was published are senior medics sounding the alarm?"

Ms Sturgeon rejected the suggestion outright. She said: “We are not short, right now, of beds or staff, but we do face a very challenging winter, that is true of Scotland, England, Northern Ireland, Wales, and indeed much of Europe and the world.

"That's exactly why I’m asking people to continue to exercise the utmost caution as we try to ensure the rise does not accelerate, and we stabilise the situation and hopefully see cases go into decline.

“In the last week we've seen, in terms of hospital admissions and to ICU from Covid, be slightly lower than the previous week, which is an indicator giving us very tentative, cautious ground for optimism, but there's no room for complacency.”

However, Ms Davidson asked why Prof Taylor would "directly state" shortages if the First Minister was correct.

“I'm the last person who would stand here and say the health service is under anything but intense pressure," Ms Sturgeon said.

“I and the health secretary look at bed capacity, ICU capacity literally on a daily basis across all the health boards of Scotland as we take the judgements to make sure we're giving the health service the best possible chance to cope through the winter and save lives from Covid.”

Scottish Labour leader Richard Leonard said the “perfect storm" had been coming for some time, and demanded to know what action the First Minister would take.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

“I know the severity of the challenge we face," Ms Sturgeon said.

“Going into Covid we faced pressures, but we had record numbers of staffing. Through Covid we've worked with health boards to ensure there are plans to deal with the pressures of Covid, in terms of acute capacity that means the ability to repurpose 3,000 acute beds and to double ICU capacity within one week, treble it in three weeks and if required take it to over 700 beds."

Ms Sturgeon also pointed to the temporary Covid hospital - the NHS Louisa Jordan.

She said: “Nobody should be under any doubt that we face acute challenges. But what happens with Covid is not inevitable – we each have a responsibility to limit the spread.”

Raising the impact of stress of Covid on NHS staff, Mr Leonard also demanded the government settle a new pay deal with NHS staff without “strings attached”.

He said workers were demonstrating outside Parliament "for fair pay and they deserve more than gratitude and applause”, adding: “Workers want to prioritise the fight on Covid, but the government is making them fight to prove their own worth.

"This year, of all years, your government is only prepared to talk about NHS pay when it is tied to reforms, to cuts to other terms and conditions of employment. That is the Cabinet Secretary for Health's view – that pay and reform go hand in hand. Is is it the First Minister's view or will you deliver fair pay for our workers, no ifs, no buts, no strings?"

Ms Sturgeon said she was “committed to delivering a fair pay deal for staff in the next financial year”.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

She said: "Fairness in this context will mean something different to what it would mean pre-Covid and I'm absolutely committed to that, and I'm committed to do it through negotiation with health service unions. Talks are actively underway.

"NHS going staff into Covid were, and remain, the best paid anywhere in the UK and rightly so, but we all recognise the debt of gratitude we owe to people in NHS and social care and we repay that not just in words but in practice as well.”

Ms Davidson asked about the Scottish Government's winter preparedness plan announced last week, which states it would "not be appropriate" to use medical students to help deal with staff shortages, as happened during the first lockdown.Arguing it leaves a "very substantial gap" of about 3,000 people unable to help in hospitals, Ms Davidson said: "We know from the stark intervention from the heads of the Royal Colleges of their grave reservations of how prepared we really are for the pressures of winter.

"The winter preparedness plan gives no detail of how it will find or recruit extra staff in the absence of student mobilisation.

"Doctors and nurses are already under pressure and they need reinforcements, so can the First Minister give details of where that recruitment will come from?"

The Health Secretary is working on a "winter workforce plan", Ms Sturgeon said, and explained the NHS can still access the General Medical Council's emergency register and recruit from a "pool" of retired and former healthcare workers.

Comments

 0 comments

Want to join the conversation? Please or to comment on this article.