HEALTH Secretary Humza Yousaf has denied Scotland’s NHS was not prepared for a winter crisis – as a top doctor warned that patient safety is being put at risk by soaring A&E waiting times.

Dr Lailah Peel, deputy chairwoman of the British Medical Association in Scotland, said patients are “absolutely” dying as a result of pressure on the NHS.

She said: “There is no shadow of a doubt that is happening.

“Every health care worker in Scotland right now will be able to tell you a story about a patient that has suffered because of the crisis at the moment.”

But Mr Yousaf has insisted that NHS staff are “working under the most unprecedented pressure”.

Speaking to the BBC’s The Sunday Show, the Health Secretary stressed that the Scottish Government is “doing everything we possibly can” and “leaving no stone unturned” to alleviate the pressure on the NHS.

“This is an unprecedented crisis.

“I don’t use that word lightly but it is something all governments are facing, not just in these islands but many in Europe and right across the world.”

Mr Yousaf added: “People are not getting the level of care I would want for them, or indeed that I would want for myself or a family member, in many instances.”

He spoke after figures showed a record 1,925 Scots spent 12 hours or over in A&E in the week leading up to Christmas Day.

Other recent figures show the largest number of hospital beds being occupied by those well enough to be discharged – an average of 1,898 beds a day in October.

This issue of delayed discharge is “one of the biggest issues if not the biggest issue” the NHS is facing, Mr Yousaf said.

Reports suggest that government bosses were warned a year ago about an impending NHS crisis this winter.

Asked if he had done “enough planning”, Mr Yousaf said: “Yes. We have planned for this winter as soon as the last winter was over.

“We got right into meetings with our local health boards, with our social care colleagues and everybody else.”

Mr Yosuaf claimed “some things we would not have been able to foresee”, pointing the finger at the “high levels of inflation caused by the reckless mini-budget”, that he warned was adding to social care costs.

The situation in the health service has seen Scottish Labour call for the Army to be sent in to help boost capacity.

But the Health Secretary argued: “The Army is not the panacea to this.

“The vast majority of Army nurses and doctors are working in wards right now; reservists are working in wards up and down the country already.

“So there is not this magic pool of nurses and doctors we can just count on to bring in and assist.”

The NHS is dealing with high levels of both flu and coronavirus, Mr Yousaf said, along with Strep A cases and other viral infections.

Meanwhile, he said the social care sector has been hit by Brexit, the pandemic and the current “extraordinarily high levels of energy costs and inflation”.

Dr Peel, however, said the situation for doctors in the NHS is “absolutely brutal”.

Asked how she feels about going into work in A&E, she said: “Absolutely dread it, every single time. Doesn’t get any easier. It is just getting harder every single day.”

She added: “I hear from colleagues every day when I get into work. Everyone is talking about how they just can’t take any more of this, talking about whether they should be leaving, whether we should wait it out, whether there might be a light at the end of the tunnel.

“We’re seeing more and more colleagues just not turning up to work because they are just broken.”

Scottish Conservative shadow health secretary, Dr Sandesh Gulhane, said: “Humza Yousaf is still in denial about how he completely failed to support Scotland’s NHS ahead of the worst winter in living memory that overwhelmed staff and suffering patients are continuing to endure.

“He was repeatedly warned a year ago that a winter crisis was looming but he totally failed to act. His flimsy NHS recovery plan which is now well over a year old is simply not fit for purpose and his winter planning came too little too late.

“The warnings from BMA doctors are utterly terrifying and I have seen first-hand over the festive period how patients are suffering. Burnout staff simply cannot give anymore and are dreading anytime they have to go in for a shift.”