Patients have been left on hospital trolleys for hours amid the first signs NHS Scotland is struggling to cope this winter.
Helen Puttick and Brian Donnelly
Patients have been left on hospital trolleys for hours amid the first signs NHS Scotland is struggling to cope this winter.
Consultants said bed shortages were nearing "crisis point" yesterday as an outbreak of flu began to bite.
Michael McMahon, Labour MSP, said he was greeted by "pandemonium" when he went to see his sick mother-in-law in A&E at Monklands Hospital, in Lanarkshire.
The number of emergency medical cases admitted to the hospital on Monday was the highest on record.
Staff in NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde and NHS Tayside also described working in difficult conditions this week. Other health boards confirmed they were experiencing high demand and a small number of planned operations have been cancelled. The surge follows the festive holidays when GP surgeries were shut, a spell of often frosty weather that can exacerbate illness and cause slips and fractures and an increase in flu levels.
Figures released by Health Protection Scotland, which monitors flu, show the number of people consulting their GP with symptoms more than doubled in the last weeks of 2008, from 33 consultations per 100,000 people to 73.
Michael Johnston, A&E consultant at Ninewells Hospital in Dundee, said yesterday: "Ninewells is creaking at the seams. There has already been a high-level meeting at lunchtime with clinical managers and the medical director.
"The hospital is near crisis point in the availability of acute medical beds."
He said the hospital still had a backlog of patients from the festive period.
A consultant for NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, who asked not to be named, said staff had worked extremely hard to cope on Monday and bed capacity was stretched across the region.
He added: "It was controlled chaos."
Mr McMahon, Hamilton MSP, rushed to Monklands in Airdrie on Monday afternoon when he learned his mother-in-law had been sent to A&E with a heart murmur.
He said: "It immediately became apparent there was pandemonium in accident and emergency. There was standing room only in the waiting area.
"We went through into the triage area and there was a woman haranguing a nurse who looked completely harassed.
"I just got the impression that there was mayhem ensuing."
The politician described passing patients lying on trolleys in corridors as he went to find his mother-in-law, who was on one of the trolleys with a heart monitor on her lap.
He said a nurse told him Monklands Hospital was short of 40 beds and, Lanarkshire's other two hospitals, Hairmyres and Wishaw General, were in an even worse situation.
The MSP finally heard the 77-year-old was being taken to a ward at 12.20am.
He said: "The staff were remarkable, you could see the pressure they were under."
He added that questions had to be asked about how the problems had arisen. He said: "I would like someone to explain what preparation is put in place and why this situation had not been foreseen."
Dr Barry Vallance, associate medical director for the board, said they had anticipated hospitals would be busy on Monday but the number of admissions was "exceptional".
He added that yesterday was quieter and staff were "working extremely hard to return service to normal".
NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde said their hospitals had faced a "significant challenge" over recent days. On occasions they have had to re-route patients admitted by GPs but disruption to planned operations has been "minimal".
NHS Grampian said it was busy and had cancelled three operations since New Year, but all would be re-arranged within waiting-time targets.
NHS Forth Valley said it was "experiencing a particularly high level of respiratory illness".
Health Secretary Nicola Sturgeon said: "Health boards know is winter is the busiest time of the year - and the first day back at work after New Year is traditionally the busiest of all.
"This is exactly why they have very robust plans in place to cope, and these plans have ensured the festive season has gone remarkably smoothly."
