‘Every possible step’ being taken to help NHS Scotland, insists First Minister Nicola Sturgeon

Nicola Sturgeon has said “every possible step” will be taken to help the NHS, after holding another resilience meeting to discuss the ongoing pressure on the health service.

The Scottish Government’s resilience committee met again on Friday to discuss rates of respiratory infections and efforts to clear delayed discharged in hospitals.

As well as the First Minister, health secretary Humza Yousaf, the deputy first minister, the chief medical officer and NHS representatives attended the meeting.

Earlier this week, Yousaf announced an extra £8m of funding to provide care home beds for hospitals to discharge patients into.

The NHS 24 service is also due to take on around 200 new staff before the end of March.

Sturgeon said: “It is clear that pressure on NHS and social care continues to be very high, and that we need to maintain our emphasis on doing everything we can to help the service through the remainder of the winter.

“The measures set out by the health secretary earlier in the week will help to address some of the main issues – easing delayed discharge by purchasing additional care beds for those who are fit to leave hospital, and ensuring adequate resource is in place for NHS 24.

“The focus of today’s meeting was to ensure that we keep pushing ahead with every possible step to support our tremendous health and social care staff, and ensure the people of Scotland continue to get the care and treatment they need.

“I would like to thank every single person working in the NHS and care system for the tremendous contribution they are making.”