Humza Yousaf says pandemic has left NHS staff completely knackered

A member of staff at University Hospital Monklands attends to a Covid patient on the ICU ward earlier this year

NHS and social care staff are "completely knackered" due to the pressures of dealing with the fall-out from the pandemic, Scotland's health secretary has acknowledged.

Humza Yousaf said the after-effects of Covid were being felt most acutely in accident and emergency departments.

One junior doctor described the situation as "frankly dangerous".

The latest figures show 9,417 patients spent more than eight hours in A&E in April.

The Scottish government has a target of dealing with 95% of patients who come to an emergency department within four hours.

But in April just 72.1% of patients were admitted, transferred or discharged within that timeframe.

In Glasgow's Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow, it was just 46%.

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Mr Yousaf told BBC Radio's Good Morning Scotland Covid has caused the biggest shock to the NHS in its history.

The health service was put on an emergency footing amid an increase in Covid cases, with routing operations and cancer screenings cancelled.

It also led to fewer people going to A&E.

The health secretary said: "The cumulative impact of that, while we are still of course dealing with this virus, is undoubtedly causing real strain, real pressure, real challenge, right across the health and social care system and felt really acutely in our A&E departments."

Mr Yousaf suggested clinicians were facing problems due to factors such as "sicker" patients attending A&E after having stayed away for longer than usually expected.

He said issues in social care, such as delayed discharges from hospitals, can also be attributed to the challenges presented by the pandemic, adding that this number is "far higher" than he would want them to be.

More than 53,000 days were spent in hospital by people whose discharge was delayed in April 2022 - a 64% increase on April 2021.

Mr Yousaf added: "But also because people are maybe not able to get the Care at Home packages they desperately need, they're ending up with those slips, trips and falls - particularly the elderly - and back in the front door again.

"So it is a really difficult cycle, given the whole system is completely interconnected, hence why the interventions and the investment that we are making is in every part of the system."

He went on to acknowledge the strain staff were under.

He added: "I can understand entirely where doctors, nurses and everybody who works in health and social care are completely knackered and that's why we will continue to put investment into wellbeing and ensure they have access to some of those wellbeing initiatives."

The health secretary also said he was "concerned but not panicked" by the rise in Covid infections in Scotland.

'Frankly dangerous'

Dr Lailah Peel, who chairs the British Medical Association's Scottish Junior Doctors Committee, is concerned the pressures on the NHS will only get worse.

She told Good Morning Scotland: "It is just frankly dangerous right now.

"If you look at the statistics for last month, one in 11 patients were waiting more than eight hours and evidence has shown that, for every 82 patients that are waiting more than eight hours in our A&E departments, there's one excess death.

"So that means about 114 patients in Scotland potentially died that should not have done."

Dr Peel added the problem was not just in A&E but said it was where "the cracks in the system are showing" as it was the one 24/7 service.

She described the system as "totally broken" and said more acute hospital beds and staff were needed to address the pressures.

Meanwhile, Scottish Labour health spokeswoman Jackie Baillie accused Mr Yousaf of being "in complete denial".

She said: "NHS workers have not just been left exhausted by the pandemic, but by years of mismanagement under the SNP.

"Staff are still working tirelessly to paper over the cracks caused by SNP incompetence.

"Humza Yousaf needs to stop commenting on the problem and start fixing it by addressing the disastrous workforce crisis his government created."

Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton said the current situation was "the result of years of botched workforce planning".

He added: "The NHS is overwhelmed and people are dying as a consequence.

"The SNP/Green Government was wrong to vote down my call for a burnout prevention strategy to protect staff and it's wrong to oppose an urgent inquiry into the avoidable deaths linked to the emergency care crisis."

Scottish Conservative health spokesman, Dr Sandesh Gulhane MSP, said: "NHS staff have been working under extreme stress for more than two years now.

"The Health Secretary's belated attempts to get on top of the situation will be seen as too little, too late, by the doctors and nurses who are on the edge of burnout.

"All the while, patients will continue to suffer and die needlessly until Humza Yousaf addresses the long-term, systemic problems in our NHS that have grown up under the SNP."