SCOTLAND’S second largest health board has been forced to ask the military for help ferrying medical staff to its hospitals because of the extreme weather.
NHS Lothian, which operates 21 hospitals serving 800,000 people in Edinburgh and three surrounding councils, has formally requested assistance from the Ministry of Defence.
It follows the board issuing a plea to off-duty staff, particularly registered nurses, to volunteer for work to help relieve the pressure of staff shortages. All routine non-urgent elective procedures and all hospital outpatient appointments were also cancelled yesterday and today.
READ MORE: Military called in to help deal with 'Beast from the East'
However emergency and urgent elective procedures were still due to go ahead, with cancer surgery and patients made a priority.
The health board applied for help under the Military Aid to the Civil Authorities (MACA) protocol, which governs the Army’s intervention in civilian crises.
It is understood the Defence Secretary of State, Gavin Williamson, was required to give his consent, because of the sensitivity in deploying the military on Britain’s streets.
Scots-based soldiers deployed last night to transport NHS Scotland staff needed to deliver critical care services to and from Edinburgh Royal Infirmary and the Western General.
Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson said: “Our Armed Forces stand ready to help as Britain is hit by severe weather. We’ve already seen the RAF helping doctors and nurses get to some of the most vulnerable people.
Storm Emma: Disruption to travel set to continue after severe weather warning expires
Our service personnel are showing great dedication and a spirited sense of duty as they support local authorities and keep people safe.”
NHS Scotland are facing a potentially critical situation because of the impact on weather conditions has had on their staff’s ability to move to and from work. In particular ensuring shift staff can get home to rest in order to return the following day. This affects over 200 staff in two hospitals.
NHS Lothian said: “Our staff have made heroic efforts to ensure the safe running of our services”.
READ MORE: Military called in to help deal with 'Beast from the East'
Yellow warnings for snow are in place for vast swathes of the country for the whole day, while a yellow warning for wind covers the North East of England and Wales until midday.
Temperatures will once again be below freezing for many parts of the UK during the day, with strong winds making it feel even chillier.
Met Office meteorologist Steven Keates said: "We are not out of the woods yet.
"There's further snow to come, as well as a wintry mix of sleet and freezing rain.
"Even parts of London and the South East are not immune to seeing more snow through the afternoon - not as much as yesterday, but still enough to cause further disruption."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel