SCOTLAND’S Health Secretary has warned to expect a “very significant increase” in waiting times for routine appointments as she labelled her own targets for care home workers to be routinely tested for Covid-19 as “unrealistic”.

Jeane Freeman updated MSPs on progress to restart NHS services amid the Covid-19 pandemic – urging caution as “the virus remains as virulent and as dangerous to life as it has ever been”.

Ms Freeman stressed that NHS staff “need time off, time with their families, time to recharge” following the stress and strain put on frontline workers during the Covid-19 crisis.

She said that the Scottish Government’s testing strategy is being used to “ensure the safe resumption or continuation of NHS services”.

She added: “This surveillance testing will add to our intelligence and early warning capability, critical for efforts to catch any outbreaks as early as possible, minimising wider transmission.”

Last month, Ms Freeman promised that “testing of all staff is now a weekly occurrence, in any event”.

But Conservative health spokesperson, Donald Cameron, questioned Ms Freeman over the Scottish Government regularly missing its testing target by around 17,000 care home staff each week.

In response, Ms Freeman said that testing all staff was “unrealistic”, due to staff absences, adding that “we have some staff who refuse to be tested”, as it is not mandatory.

Mr Cameron said: “This is an extraordinary thing to say, given it's such an incredibly serious issue.

“It is vital that care home staff, who have so bravely kept working through incredibly difficult conditions and continue to do so, are tested on a weekly basis to limit the spread of the virus.”

He added: “The SNP can’t just roll back promises whenever it becomes difficult.

“Nobody is expecting 100 per cent of care home staff to be tested each week but the SNP are miles wide of the mark at the moment.

“The excuses don’t cut it. The SNP need to drive the number of tests for care home staff far higher and stick to their original goal.”

Ms Freeman pointed to previous "significant progress" for waiting times, but warned that when statistics are published for March to June, "we can expect to see any progress wiped out".

She added: "Early estimates are that up to 50 per cent of operating theatre throughput could be affected in the coming months. We will augment local capacity by using national resources at NHS Golden Jubilee and NHS Louisa Jordan and there will, of course, be variation between boards – but I want to be clear, this will have a significant impact on the time many patients have to wait for treatment.

"I regret that we cannot mobilise to the degree and at the speed we all wish for. But as we continue to deal with the virus and the aftermath of the first months, there is no choice.

"We have to continue to balance the competing demands and pressures, making the best decisions we can – none of which are easy and none of which are taken lightly."