Fernie says increase in cancelled ops in the north is 'extremely disappointing'
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A CAITHNESS health campaigner has described as "extremely disappointing" new figures which show a significant increase in the number of cancelled operations in the Highlands due to the coronavirus.
Bill Fernie, the chairman of the Caithness Health Action Team, hit out after statistics published by Public Health Scotland showed that in the six months between April and September, only 2,923 operations were carried out in the NHS Highland area – down from an average of 7278 in the same period in the three years between 2016 and 2019. According to the figures 4355 operations were not carried out in recent months.
Mr Fernie said: "An awful lot more people could be in pain and in danger of dying if they are not getting their ops for knee and hip replacements or cancer operations. I am sure NHS Highland will prioritise these people and they will be in the numbers getting ops but there must be an increased risk to people generally. A backlog is building up across the country and it could take a very long time to catch up. These figures are extremely disappointing."
He added: "In the long run, we could see an increase in deaths for non-Covid conditions because people did not get their treatment or operations in time and we may not know that for a couple of years. That is a concern for people who have cancer and other conditions."
Mr Fernie wondered why the operating theatres in Caithness could not help out as there is "not much prevalance of the coronavirus here".
Highlands and Islands Conservative MSP, Edward Mountain, also expressed his concern about the cancelled operations. He has called on the Scottish Government to take urgent action to deal with the situation and "guarantee that NHS Highland will be able to carry out vital operations wherever possible."
Although Mr Mountain acknowledges everything must be done to tackle rising coronavirus cases, he is calling on the SNP to not forget about patients who are still waiting for vital operations in NHS Highland.
He wants the Scottish Government to ensure frontline staff are given the full resources they need and patients told if their operations will go ahead or not.
Mr Mountain said: "It is concerning that a potential 4,355 operations will have been cancelled or put on hold in the last six months.
"As we head into winter, waiting times for operations in NHS Highland cannot spiral out of control."
NHS Highland says it continues to ensure its services are available to face the challenges of Covid-19.
"Our remobilisation of clinical services continue to work through patients that were impacted as a result of the first Covid 19 wave and we are in the process of stepping up our winter preparedness to ensure we are able to care for patients safely in our hospitals, GP practices and across social care," said a spokesman.
