Scotland: 60% of hospital admissions linked to Covid

Health bosses in Scotland have revealed after studying data from NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde for the period December 30 to January 4, that 60% of all hospital admissions are linked to one or more variants of Covid-19.
During the period analysed that of the 210 people hospitalised 60 people were found to have the virus while in a further 15 cases it was probable that they had Covid-19. A further 51 patients were hospitalised having been identified as suffering from the virus.
Health Secretary Humza Yousaf, in releasing the figures, warned that the NHS would face its toughest period in the organisation’s history in the coming weeks.
He said: “I don’t think truthfully there’s any way of sugar coating the fact that these next few weeks will probably be amongst the most difficult our NHS has ever faced in its 73-year existence. We are facing pressures on a number of fronts.”
Continuing he said: “We have the pandemic backlog that has built up over the last 20 months, we have high levels of staff absences again much of that because of Omicron and its higher transmissibility. And then of course we also are treating a number of people, around 1200 people, in hospital with Covid.”
Referring to the usual pressures that the NHS faces at this time of the year, Yousaf said: “So those pressures coming during the winter months, but of course we tend to see busier hospitals as pressure on our health service means that there’s a perfect storm.”
The figures upon which the minister based his assertion that 60% of hospital admissions were or could be linked to Covid, originate from only one Trust and therefore are unlikely to be 100% accurate. The Greater Glasgow NHS Trust is the largest in Scotland covering a wide range of people from varying backgrounds and as such could be extrapolated, as the minister has done to give the larger picture.

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