Covid in Scotland: Tayside warning over young patients in intensive care
- Published
Young adults on Tayside are being urged to get vaccinated as soon as possible
NHS Tayside has urged 18-29 year-olds to get vaccinated amid a surge in Covid cases that has put some young patients in intensive care.
The region has the highest Covid rate in Scotland and been one of the worst affected in Europe in recent weeks.
Ninewells Hospital in Dundee has had to open another critical care ward to accommodate Covid patients.
And there are said to be young people among those being treated in intensive care and high dependency units.
It comes as experts from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) say that for the week to 3 July, one in 100 people in Scotland has Covid - up from one in 150 and the highest level since the week to 16 January.
Ninewells had no Covid patients in April but on Thursday of this week it had 58, with 11 of them in the critical care unit.
Dr Emma Fletcher - Tayside's director of public health - said the situation was "exceptionally serious" and urged people aged between 18 and 29 to get themselves vaccinated.
In a video message, she said: "This is the highest number of patients we have had since 12 February and our rate per 100,000 population is more than 10 times what it was just a few weeks ago.
"Unfortunately there are young people right now with Covid in Ninewells - not only in our general wards, but also in our intensive care unit and our high dependency unit.
"So today we have a simple plea: Please go and get your vaccination."
The recent surge in cases across Scotland appears to have stabilised slightly this week, however, Dr Fletcher said the number of people testing positive in Tayside remained in the hundreds every day.
She added: "One of the biggest reasons that I am concerned is that having high numbers of cases in the community has a big knock on effect on our hospitals as it inevitably results in more people requiring hospital care."
The new ward at Ninewells has the capacity to treat a further 30 Covid patients.
Other health boards are also under pressure due to the recent spike in case numbers.
NHS Lanarkshire said it is considering scaling back non-urgent procedures because of "workforce pressures" and rising Covid admissions.
Raigmore in the Highlands, Aberdeen Royal Infirmary and Dr Gray's Hospital in Elgin, Moray, have all postponed all non-urgent procedures after being placed in "code black" status.
'Unprecedented numbers'
Meanwhile, the Scottish government has confirmed additional staff will be deployed over the coming week to bolster the Test and Protect contact tracing system.
Health Secretary Humza Yousaf believes recent changes are helping its performance and it is now contacting "unprecedented numbers" of people.
He said: "This extra workforce is important, but the success of the system going forward will not simply be about staffing numbers.
"Test and Protect will change as the population becomes more protected by vaccination and it will still play a key role in mitigating clusters and outbreaks in high risk settings, slowing infection spread and protecting populations at risk."
Mr Yousaf said text messages are now being used to contact lower risk cases in order to prioritise calls for higher risk cases.
He added: "I'm confident that the performance of Test and Protect has started to improve in recent days."
The Scottish Conservatives accused the SNP of allowing the system to get "completely overwhelmed" before taking action.
The party's health spokeswoman, Annie Wells, warned that the problems could delay lockdown easing plans.
Ms Wells said: "They took their eye off the ball at a critical moment and failed to resource the system to cope with a surge in cases in Scotland.
"SNP ministers are now performing a U-turn and playing catch-up to try and stop any further and spread of Covid, ahead of the planned easing of restrictions in the coming weeks.
"It is on their watch that more staff weren't already recruited to ensure Test and Protect was still working robustly, which is threatening to put the relaxation of restrictions at risk for people and businesses."
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- Published9 July 2021
